The Convergence: Shattered Dimensions
by Kmandy
Summary: In all of creation there are infinite possibilities, worlds, outcomes and diverging paths. Creation is unpredictable and sprawling. But in the space between creation's touches something is watching, and it is envious... Now, a small group of heroes must unite to confront this threat. [Featuring characters from eight of MCForums' most successful Minefics.]
1. Prologue 1: Astro

**Prologue 1:** _Astro (Tale of Gaia Before Gaia)_

With every step, the trek became harder.

I lifted weary arms, and tired legs in a repetitive motion, for it was the only way to cleanse my soul. The sky was bright, as if it was a mockery of pathetic fallacy, instead choosing to prove opposite to the foul aura that had hung over me ever since…even now, I still don't want to talk about it. Snow pelted down around me, adding to my pessimistic mood.

To my left and right, there were men and women who I had once considered my friends. I had gathered them together in an attempt to fight a most pitiful war, a war that ultimately took not only many of them, but also a part of myself, and left me devoted to those I had left as my only form of repentance. Here was the brave clan of Twenty-Four Diamonds, our once bright flame reduced merely to the cinders. And even among those, many had extinguished, and turned back.

It was all that remained for me after the fighting that had enveloped all Crafts.

The use of magic had finally begun to take its desperate toll on me. The words of the kind administrator, Ghostly, reverberated around my head, kept sharp and memorable by the very power that was destroying me.

'Magic is a double-edged sword. You can do great things, but ultimately it will take you.'

And take him it did. And now, it seems I am not far off. Forsaken or abandoned by all but those who surrounded me now, as we wandered desperately the Plains of Acrisius. It was all that was left to us. Looking for salvation in the terror that ensued, for order within chaos.

Only a fool believes they can find such a thing.

The floor was littered with the bodies of those who had died in the last great conflict. Those who had lain down their lives in belief of an ultimate cause, to end the greatest evil that had ever faced this world since Ishinge himself. Mail, swords, but most of all blood lingered on the plains like a reminder of the disaster that I let happen. I vowed that it couldn't, but now it was one of two things killing me from the inside.

A light haze encircled my feet, making it difficult to see the ground without straining my eyes. It was undoubtedly the fog of war, although if it were anything else I would be extremely happy to see it. Maybe this was the way that the Plains preserved the silent sanctity of the dead.

Aaron gestured weakly to my left, his fatigued arm barely rising. We had been walking for days, making a dismal and unfulfilling camp when we needed to. But mostly, we had been silent as the grief overcame us each night as we begged for sleep, and failing that, the eternal void that had not yet claimed us.

The body he pointed out didn't seem any more significant than any of the others that surrounded it; the trampled mass of human life was equally depressing no matter where you looked. In the past, I would have taken the line of thought just to be glad that I myself had survived the conflict, but what was the point when many of those you knew had gone?

Their laughter, their tears, the secrets that they had confided in me, but most of all their dreams, came flooding back to me when my eyes were drawn to a set of Thaumaturge armour. I was certain that this was the body I was searching for.

The guild paused behind me, wary of approaching the body of the Thaumaturge.

Aaron rested a hand upon my shoulder and looked into my eyes.

"Astro, they need to go back. You've dragged them, and I, far enough."

The momentary contact was soon gone, as Aaron and the guild turned back, heading in the direction of Arcation manor. I turned my attention once again to the armour.

With renewed strength, I ran towards the body as if it were my final chance at redemption. As I reached it, I couldn't hold back any longer. I jerked as I shed many tears and sobbed uncontrollably, for here was clearly confirmation of what I had feared to be true from the start.

Just one more friend, dead. For surely, this was the body of-

Before I was able to retreat into my internal monologue of complete self-pity, my ear twitched. Surely not here, not now?

I had used magic to enhance my senses and reflexes in case we were attacked. I had promised Kay that I wouldn't let anything befall me, and I was damned if I were to break that promise. But more importantly than that, I had promised, and owed to all those that had come with me to keep them safe.

So, drawing on my magic, I used my brief amount of time in that calm before the storm to teleport the guild to safety, and ready myself for the onslaught. It was me they wanted, and the guild did not deserve to die for me.

The first swordsman was quick, coming from behind with a slash aimed at my left leg. I turned round at equal speed and parried the blow by reinforcing my arm with the strength of steel. The use of magic clawed at my heart, making it beat erratically, and I felt my fatigue increase.

I was sure the next blow was to end me, so I used a failsafe: Lifting one hand, I channeled raw energy to shut down the man's nervous system. He was incapacitated, but not dead, for there was to be no more bloodshed on that day.

Sadly, he wasn't alone.

Barely giving me time to react, two more materialised on either side of me, and I drew _Doloris_ – the blade once known as _Amicus_ that I had aptly renamed – from its sheath, and fell into a desperate defensive clash with the swordsmen. Their cold, black eyes and diamond shells revealed nothing that I could use to predict their movements, and maybe sway the course of the battle, and I knew that without magic, I would soon be forced to submit to the pressure they had put on me.

My survival instinct kicked in, and on impulse, I dislocated one man's throat with my mind. The other was too disorientated by this show to respond, and I used this opening to embed my blade in a chink in his enchanted armour. They were both dead before they hit the floor, destroyed by a ruthless killer that would torture himself for it, and for countless other misdeeds for the rest of his days.

The further use of magic was enough to make me stoop and fall, face into the dirt, beside the body I had worked so painstakingly to find. But the tempest of churning blood desperately trying to keep me alive received no reprieve as I felt the promise of death materialise behind me.

The endlings were quick. Too quick. Before I could understand what was happening, my arms were bound, my mind too exhausted to even consider an attack on them. Their gruesome faces looked down at me, the pitiful mortal who dared not even to consider opposing their might. Without considering the implications, I struggled against the bonds they had imposed upon my arms. The only reward was a jarring outburst of pain that stemmed from them through my whole body.

I turned my head up for a last glimpse before the end. I could see a man in the distance, but make out little else about him as the coming blizzard obscured my vision, and the endling raised his iron fist above my head.

 **The stars above me went out as the lights in my brain went dark.**

* * *

 **What is the Convergence?**

Well, after all that you're probably wondering what this story is about. Well, the title of the project is telling, "The Convergence", but what is in fact converging? Well, in story it's various worlds, but outside of that it's a crossover. Now, before you shit yourself and flee the building, expecting to see Spongebob and Tony Soprano, or worse yet, Shrek and Jesus (that's a thing and it happened... somehow) in a relationship by the next post, calm down. It's not that sort of crossover.

This is something quite different, and you probably guessed that because "Astro" isn't a canonical Minecraft character, or popular youtuber, and you have no clue who he is. This is one of _those_ fanfictions. The ones where everyone is an OC and it has little to do with the original product or those surrounding it. This is because, in the realm of Minecraft fanfiction, believe it or not, there are stories to be had aside from those surrounding Steve or Youtubers. There is great potential for fantastical worlds to be created from the minimalism of the original game. Literally anything can be done, and has been done in the fandom beforehand, many times. This is compiling characters from several of the most successful fanfiction stories on the MCForums Literature subsection to fight a common foe. So, shall we continue?

 **STORIES INVOLVED:**

 _The Tale of Gaia Before Gaia_ By Astro_joe

 _Astro_

 _The Herobrine Chronicles_ by Nomolos1

 _Steve and Jennifer_

 _Fall and a Rise: A Vanillacraft Tale_ By Kmandy

 _Kay_

 _The Book of Dreams_ by Asanetargoss

 _Fristad_

 _Slaves of the Desert Mine_ by SuperFire131

 _Fire_

 _Minecraft Origins_ by Turtlemaster217

 _Warnado (Helix)_

 _The Eternal Mine_ by TheLoneAssassino

 _David and Destiny_

 _Cubic Fire_ by DragonTyron

 _Tyron_


	2. Prologue 2: Fristad

**Prologue 2:** _Fristad (Book of Dreams)_

The young man set the finished stone pickaxe upon the ground and brushed the sweat of his hands onto his burlap pants. A small pile of tools had formed beside him: tightly packed torch bases waiting to be lit, stone picks and shovels with formidably sharpened tips, and arrows each of the exact same size and shape. Every wooden surface was as smooth as if it was freshly oiled, although no oil was needed, as the magic of the crafting bench already left the tools in such a perfect state.

The man had been working at the crafting bench for several hours, inside of a windowless room dug out from the wall of an ancient city. The room looked more like a miner's workstation than a home; its walls were filled with chests with furnaces, with no more than a sleeping bag and a few blankets hanging from the back wall. The man did not appear as if he belonged in this room. He certainly was not a miner. He had neither muscles, nor armor, nor weapons to show for his strength. All he wore was a black vest over a white shirt, beige burlap pants, and leather boots. His only source of protection was perhaps the axe whose iron blade poked out of the leather sheath hanging from his waist.

The man in the vest sat on the crafting bench to rest. His eyes conveyed growing concern as he watched the furnaces closely. The furnaces' dim flames were starting to die out, and there was no coal left to refuel them. The miner who left him there promised that she would be back in time to "keep the furnaces nice and hot," but the man was beginning to doubt that her journey had gone as planned.

There was another emotion in the man's caramel-colored eyes which was somewhat more subtle. It was an unexplainable nervousness, a kind which someone would feel lingering in their mind a moment after they looked at him and then turned away.

After a moment of thought, the man pushed himself off of the crafting bench. He picked up one of the newly-crafted torches with his left hand and scraped its head against the ground, and the torch burst alight with a yellow flame.

He pushed aside the wooden pallet which acted as an improvisational door to the room and slid it back into place. The smell of smoke and burning coal was replaced with the smell of rancid sewage waste coming from the end of the corridor he was now in. He followed the corridor down to a great passageway.

From there, the man wove his way through piles of trash and decaying machines until he entered another corridor.

Every once in a while he would pause at an intersection, to remember the path that the miner showed him.

He turned a corner and then stopped. His eyes widened in shock.

An active Nether portal stood at the end of a room. Before the portal laid an empty suit of iron armor on top of a pile of treasure: polished spheres of solid redstone, gem-studded jewelery boxes, gilded candelabras...

The man's eyes wandered toward the crushed bow and arrows laying in front of the heap. "Someone must have killed Brittany," he thought. "If they were strong enough to kill a miner, there's no way I'd stand a chance against them. I have to get out of this place."

He stepped forward but then paused. "Wait, I shouldn't do that," he thought. "I should take a different portal that's far away from here, as far as possible from any direction the killer could have gone... except that won't work because great distances in this world are small distances in the Nether. I would just waste time."

He smothered the head of the torch into the wall, destroying the flame. He replaced the iron axe in his sheath with the torch handle and gripped the axe tightly with both hands. His brow clenched and his muscles flexed. A cool draft breathed against his face, smelling faintly of dried leaves.

"Notch help me," he thought. "If he sees or hears me first, then I'm a goner."

After a moment, the man hesitated. He dropped the axe on the ground and picked up the pieces of iron armor, one by one, put them on, and picked up his axe again.

"Sorry, Brittany."

He walked forward into the portal. His form stretched and distorted until the purple membrane broke open into a grainy black space, which pulled him inside before snapping shut.

The man braced himself for a sharp turn, but instead found himself accelerated forward.

 _"This can't be happening!"_ a female voice inside the man's head shouted. _"The Nether portal is broken! Every second this current is dragging us deeper into the void. What did I do to deserve this? I didn't work so hard to get to the overworld, only to be lost and forgotten again!"_

 _The man watched as his arms faded into the ink of the growing darkness. "Does that I'm going to die?" he thought._

 _"Yes."_

 **The man closed his eyes and waited. "I don't feel anything yet," he thought. "That gives me time to think."**

* * *

 _Well, that was our second prologue from the series, Book of Dreams by Asanetargoss, a personal favourite of mine. Next Prologue will look at Steve and Jennifer from The Herobrine Chronicles._

 _If you have any questions, just PM me or post a review, I'll be glad to respond or answer any of them. :D_

 _-Dublinjake/Kmandy_


	3. Prologue 3: Warnado

**Prologue 3:** _Warnado (Minecraft Origins: Forever Flames, The Dark Dungeon, Overcharged and Enderborn)_

The villager stared at the night sky. That human always taunted the villagers, saying that they didn't know how to defend themselves from the evils that roamed the earth during the night. However, today they had a right to be scared. Today was the day of the Solar Eclipse. Today was the day the Moon passed in front of the Sun.

A sudden swooping sound caught the villager's attention. He glanced around the outside from his window, his eyes finally landing on a tall, shadowy creature. He frowned at the Enderman; it had a nasty habit of stealing parts of the villagers' houses and teleporting them to some far-off place, never to be seen again. The villager knew plenty well not to look at the Enderman's face; he'd rather not agitate the creature. However, he had heard stories about the Solar Eclipse. Tonight, the Endermen were always hostile...

Another whooshing sound, and the Enderman was gone. The villager shook his head. He turned around, intent on retiring for the night, and came face to face with the Enderman from before. The dark creature glared down at the villager, daring him to look up into his deep, purple eyes. For some reason, it seemed so tempting, as if looking into those eyes would grant the villager knowledge of the infinite power of the universe. Giving into temptation, the villager slowly turned his head upwards, and stared into the eyes. The Enderman screamed.

Warnado125 stormed into the villager's house. "I always have to protect you guys, don't I?" Warnado sighed. He held both hands in front of himself, making an X shape, with his right hand closest to his chest. Warnado made a fist with his right hand, pulled it back towards his face, and made a fist with his other hand, creating a bow made out of purple energy. He fired an energy arrow at the Enderman, striking it in the side of the Enderman dashed towards Warnado, kicking him outside through the door. As he landed, Warnado rolled backwards, landing on his feet again. He threw his energy bow to the ground, where it dissipated into purple particles. Warnado sprinted at the Enderman, who was still screeching, and uppercutted him in the jaw. The monster staggered backwards, hitting his head on the top of the house. The Enderman bent down, holding his head. Warnado once again ran towards the dark creature, forming an energy sword in his right hand, and stabbed it in the head. The Enderman gave a final screech as it fell to the ground, finally dead.

The villager poked his head out the door, examining Warnado's work. He said something unintelligible.

"I told you, don't call me Helix! It's Warnado now!" Warnado rolled his eyes, and made his way across the grass path that led out of the village.

The village was situated in a valley, with two mountains on either side of it. Warnado lived at the top of one of the mountains, inside a cave that he had carved out himself. The inside wasn't very comfortable, but it was home.

A flaw in design meant that the stairs that led up to the cave were quite a ways away from the village. As Warnado followed the path that led to the stone staircase, he kept a wary eye out for any threats that plagued the night.

He wasn't wary enough.

There was a river that ran through the center of the valley, which served as a water source for both the villagers and Warnado. As Warnado stopped to fill his canteen, a rustling bush caught his attention. He punched his fist together, setting them alight with purple energy. "You're probably just a bunny," Warnado said to the bush.

On cue, a rabbit hopped out of the rustling leaves.

"Ha!" Warnado laughed. "Can't fool me this time!"

A giant spider leaped out of the bush and ate the rabbit.

"Wow," Warnado said. "What garbage."

Warnado heard a hissing sound from behind him. All around, monsters were closing in on Warnado. He was surprised; he was very attuned to his surroundings, and creatures usually couldn't sneak up on him easily. He glanced all around himself, then at the river and the zombie who was blocking it. "You first, then," he muttered, and shot a blast of energy at the zombie, who flew backwards into the river.

Warnado ran towards the river. When he reached it, he quickly formed a boat out of energy and hopped inside, fleeing down the river with the current. Skeletons shot at him and the rest of the monsters gave chase. Warnado laughed. They'd never catch him.

And that's when the Guardians came.

Warnado frowned at the strange one-eyed creatures as they swam through the dark water. Guardians didn't normally appear anywhere outside of their undersea temples. Must have something to do with the eclipse, Warnado thought. He stared across the water in front of him, pondering what to do. He was flanked on either side by the Guardians. He shook his head.

Warnado shouted something in some unintelligible language. A whirlpool opened up a few blocks in front of him, swallowing multiple Guardians. Warnado smiled and shouted something else.

Nothing happened.

Warnado shouted again. Again, nothing happened. Warnado became nervous. The whirlpool he had created was growing stronger quickly. Warnado wondered what was happening. He hadn't put that much power into his words.

Had he?

The whirlpool wasn't slowing down. Warnado desperately made an oar out of energy and tried paddling away from the swirling mass of water, but it was no use. The vortex was too strong. Warnado would be overwhelmed.

At this point, Warnado went into panic mode. He spat every spell he knew at the whirlpool, but each one bounced off harmlessly as if being controlled by some unseen force. Warnado shook his head in defeat, and spread his arms wide, basking in his life while he still had it.

Then the whirlpool pulled him in.

Warnado was easily pushed underwater, buffeted by the roaring tides that he had manifested. However, something rather strange occurred. The water kept flowing downwards infinitely. Warnado, of course, fell with it. He told himself not to look down, but did anyways, and saw what looked like a Nether portal.

 **That was the worst mistake he had ever made.**


	4. Prologue 4: Steve and Jennifer

**Prologue 4:** _Steve and Jennifer (The Herobrine Chronicles)_

"Excellent." Steve said, biting into a sandwich, pork, bread and a few other items entering his mouth in a delicious flood of flavours that he couldn't have replicated easily. "You're really good at making these."

"Thanks, bro." Replied Steve's brother, Ozen. "Lots of practice, I guess."

"A bit too much, maybe. The majority of our food supply is being made into these things."

"Well, those and potato chips." Jennifer added. Ozen was something of a fanatic when it came to creating new food-based concoctions. Everything previously heard of by him wasn't good enough, and he had gotten quite bored of eating the same dozen or so foods, so he devoted quite a lot of his time to making new edible treats and such. He was quite creative when it came to the use of foods to create more foods. Once, he used redstone as an ingredient in a food, which gave an interesting aftertaste and temporarily charged the eater with static electricity which made their hair stand on end. Another time, Ozen convinced Jennifer to eat a large quantity of redstone that was - unbeknownst to her, unfortunately - hidden in mushroom stew. It caused a loud crackling sound in her mouth and made even her long, red hair stand up completely, hiding her entire face until she slapped Ozen's.

"Well, does anyone want any potato chips?"

"Not really." Steve replied. Jennifer agreed.

"Okay, I'll go make some!" Ozen said. Steve sighed.

"Hey, Steve?" Jennifer asked.

"Yeah, Jen?"

"We never really figured out why Herobrine was in that ocean monument."

"You're right. Want to help me grab my dad's book on it?"

"Sure." Jennifer replied, as the basement of Steve's mansion was extremely unorganized and it often took hours to find what you wanted.

Steve and Jennifer went to the basement, telling Ozen on the way that he could have all the potato chips. Ozen said that that was a good idea and Steve and Jennifer went down the stone brick staircase that led to the basement. Steve punched the stone button that opened the iron door leading in and got in, with Jennifer following behind. Steve flicked a switch that activated several lamps along the walls and ceiling of the large basement. Chests of various sizes lay scattered and hastily labelled with slanted, quickly written signs, and bookshelves were lined up randomly across the walls of the large grey room, almost touching the ceiling. One chest, lazily left open, near the back of the room, seemed to be creating a faint but steady glow.

"What's in there?" Jennifer asked, gesturing toward the chest.

"I'm not sure." Steve said, his face an embodiment of puzzlement. "Let's check it out."

Steve walked toward the glowing chest, with Jennifer in close pursuit. They reached the chest and found that there were multi-coloured gems in it, vibrating violently and glowing. Steve scooped them up into his tanned hands.

"I remember these." Steve said after a second. "They showed up where Deodate hit the nether brick castle with the meteor during the war."

"What are they doing?" Jennifer asked, puzzled.

"I'm not sure." Steve closely examined the gems. His previous word for them was incorrect; they were more like crystals.

They were finely cut and now glowing brighter and darker, as if they were an urgent warning signal. They were still shaking and Steve had to close his hand around them a bit to keep them from falling out of his hand. He quickly pocketed them and turned around, about to head upstairs and inform Ozen on this news, when he saw a large man about a foot taller than him in his way. This man wore a full suit of diamond armour that shone with heavy enchantments and wielded a sword that shared this aura. The top of his chestplate was partially hidden by a thick, untidy beard. The man began to growl in a very impolite manner that annoyed Steve and Jennifer.

"Gimme the crystals!" The man shouted at Steve.

Steve closed his minerish hands completely around the crystals. "What do you need them for?" Steve asked calmly.

"Nonna your business! Now hand 'em over!"

"No thank you. I would prefer to keep them." Steve said calmly. In a way that the man wouldn't notice, Steve casually reached into his pocket and drew an ender pearl from it low enough that Jennifer could see it from where she was standing behind Steve, but the man couldn't.

"You're gonna regret that!" The man said, raising his sword. Steve reached further into his pocket, dropped the pearl and grabbed _Excalibur_ , his best sword. As the man advanced toward Steve, _Excalibur_ was fully drawn and its owner swung it into their opponent's sword, stopping it in a quarter-second and sending it the other way, out of the man's hand.

Although the man looked immensely strong, he was no match for Steve, whose diamond armour hid his muscles which were still not as muscular as the man's, however still held a great deal more power with Steve's well-practiced sword fighting techniques. Steve's armour also hid a light blue T-shirt and darker blue jeans, and his helmet covered a mat of brown hair, but gave enough space for vision through his purple eyes. His heavily enchanted diamond sword, shining with Herobrinic energy and heavy enchantments, also aided his strength quite a bit. As the man picked up his sword again, an ender pearl flew over their heads and landed on top of a bookshelf on the far end of the room, where Jennifer appeared crouching on top of the bookshelf a fraction of a second later, her diamond armour covering a black shirt and black pants, bow in hand and aimed at the man.

As the man stood up again, he noticed that Jennifer was gone and turned around, looking for her. In the course of about 1.3 seconds, Steve slashed at the back of the man's knees, causing him to fall over, and Jennifer shot an arrow into his left knee with a well-aimed arrow, and another into his right, this one a bit off-centre. The man struggled to get up as Jennifer hopped down from the bookshelves and Steve came and slashed at the man's sword, knocking it out of his hand. Steve pocketed the new sword and grabbed the man under one armpit, while Jennifer grabbed the other. They lifted him up and began to look for something he could sit on while they questioned him when their vision suddenly disappeared.

Steve and Jennifer couldn't see anything, nor could they hear anything. The only thing they could feel was the strange sensation of weightlessness.

"Jennifer?" Steve called. Okay, he could hear himself.

"What's happening?" Jennifer asked in a worried tone. Okay, he could hear her.

"I don't know!" Steve's vision was coming back, and he could see Jennifer faintly. She seemed to be falling, her hair up as if wind was whipping it up, but Steve couldn't feel any wind. Steve reached out toward Jennifer, and Jennifer grabbed Steve's hand, pulling them closer to each other. Steve saw the injured man falling as well, looking angrily at them both.

 **Suddenly, Steve saw the ground below him.**


	5. Prologue 5: Fire

**Prologue 5:** _Fire (Slaves of the Desert Mine)_

Fire was sitting at a high wooden table matching his size, on the table were dozens of vials and bottles of all shapes and sizes, filled with liquids of different colors, neatly organized in a way only Fire understood. Some of the liquids emitted light, others bubbled or behaved odd in other ways, for example a black shining liquid in a round bottle was forming a whirlpool on its own, but most just looked like water. The vials and bottles were made out a special material: diamond glass, highly resistant to acid, heat and cold but still perfectly clear.

Next to the liquids there was a range of tools, pipettes of different sizes, sticks made from diamond glass to mix liquids. Next to the tools was a mask and gloves. All over the corridor like room pipes that connected to larger liquid bottles came out of the walls, every single one had a label. "Spider Blood" was next to "Creeper Skin Distillate" and "Zombie Spawner Essence". Some labels had extra symbols on them "Leave Extract" had a crossed out flame next to its name, which meant that it should not be heated.

Fire was bowing over a large book bound in black leather with the heading "Fire's Potion Journal", in this book Fire took notes about the different effects the ingredients had on each other and at the end of the book were all the potions Fire had successfully brewed, one of them being the hypermobility potion.

Name: Hypermobility Potion  
Class: Modifying  
Effect: Water walking, walking up walls and on ceiling, swimming through air.  
Minimum Dose: 9 P4 drops  
Maximum Dose: 3 P10 drops  
Side Effects: Disorientation (not potion related)  
Overdose Effects: Destabilization of molecules inside taker (up to falling apart)

Fire was once again trying to figure out a new potion he didn't know the exact effects yet but he had a rough idea of what it was, a potion modifying the body functions. After overlooking his notes again, he closed the book and put on the white gloves and mask.

He lifted a big bottle of slightly green but else unsuspicious liquid onto the table, the base potion, in this case it was ground up enderpearls resolved in a potent acid. He quickly looked at the smaller containers on his table and picked a twisted vial containing a liquid much like water… with the slight difference that it would kill the one drinking it, it was cave spider poison. He took a medium sized pipette and pulled out half of the liquid inside the vial and let three drops drip into the large bottle. The liquid inside instantly reacted and changed its color to a dark green and began heating up. Quickly Fire took a vial with a pure bright blue bubbling liquid and emptied the entire vial into the bottle, which calmed the liquid inside down a bit and changed the color to a dirty brown. After adding a few more ingredients, including liquid glowstone and a tiny drop of the black whirlpool liquid the potion had taken a purple color but once in a while small ravine like shapes of green appeared.

"Well, that is strange…" Fire commented and then proceeded to heat up the liquid by holding bags filled with blaze powder against the lower part of the bottle. Instead of bubbling, the ravine like shapes appeared more often and larger until a large green gap was floating in the middle of the potion. Fire stood up and walked around the bottle, the gap seemed to be following him. "Strange is an understatement… it feels like it is watching me…" Fire muttered and then said: "What am I thinking."

He took the largest pipette and filled a small empty vial with the liquid and another green gap formed inside that vial.

"Only one way to find out what it does." Fire said and emptied the vial into his mouth and swallowed. He sat down and began to take notes.

No taste, no felt temperature (heated), no other sensation.

Fire waited a bit for effects to take place. After a few minutes he felt a strong pull in his entire body, the pull wasn't going anywhere and Fire knew what that meant. He didn't waste any more time taking notes and sprinted towards the door of the ingredients corridor, turned left and ran down another pipe filled corridor. A few intersections later he was at his destination, the pull had become significantly stronger. Fire pressed a button, a block got pulled away in the ceiling and a bunch of things fell to the ground. Fire picked them up and was not very pleased as he didn't find his armor or sword anywhere.

"Damn, I forgot to put them into the dispensers!" he shouted and then quickly looked at the other stuff: His ghast bone bow, a Blaze Core, a bag with various potions, a backpack, another bag with food, and one more bag with clothes. He attached the bags to his backpack using hooks on bags and backpack, put the blaze core into the backpack and then noticed one last thing that dropped, a slim long dagger. But it was no normal dagger, it was made from a pitch black shining metal and had wither energy in it, causing pain in everybody touching it who was not its smith, who was Fire. Fire slipped his dagger into an inside pocket of his coat. He felt he was about to be pulled into another dimension, that was what the pull was and that was why he ran to his travel equipment station.

The pull was overwhelming, almost painful now, Fire got down on the ground and pulled arms and legs closer to him because he didn't know where he would appear in the dimension and in what position.

 **Fire felt himself being pulled away, his vision went black.**


	6. Prologue 6: Tyron

**Prologue 7:** _Tyron (Cubic Fire)_

Why did we bother getting into this, Kir? Tyron thought worriedly to the Bluestone held within his blade, which was clamped very firmly in his right hand. Near the city, they had been wandering a field with Seth when a young girl came running up to them, tears streaming down her face. "Please, you have to help me! My big brother got lost in a cave, but it's so dark and scary and I can't go after him! You look brave, can you please help me?" Seth and Tyron had looked at each other, a little flustered, before inevitably agreeing to help the poor girl. Upon arriving at the place, they found not much more than a gaping hole in the side of a mountain, with several signs plastered around it. Each of them had some variation of "DO NOT ENTER" or "DANGER" written on them. It occurred to them that the big brother in question might not have been the brightest fellow ever. Or was at least foolish.

 _Then again, how many times have we done something that a normal person would consider foolhardy?_ Tyron thought to himself. Even his mind's voice was shaky with growing fear. Seth had agreed to wait outside the cave for him, going to send for help if he didn't return after more than two hours.

Now Tyron wished he had told Seth to come along. The darkness inside the cave didn't act like natural darkness. The most obvious difference was that Tyron couldn't see through it. In fact, not even the light of the torch held in his left hand could penetrate more than two blocks of the inky shadows. It was eerily silent, and Kir had to put more effort than usual into scanning the area around Tyron for disturbances, rendering itself speechless. Tyron kept his own senses alert, scanning the darkness for anything out of the ordinary.

A soft pair of footsteps echoed through the cave, passing by him and making the fur on his arms prickle. Did you hear that, Kir?

Yes. Not mean, but I can't see where they- LOOK OUT! Tyron jumped back as an object leapt out of the darkness at him, latching onto his raised sword and screaming into his face. It was a human, a little younger than Tyron, with wild fear lighting his eyes.

"Oh, thank god, it's you! I've heard about you in the town square, please, you have to get us out of here, it won't be long before it-"

Tyron interrupted the boy's maddened ramblings. "Slow down, what's going on? Was that your little sister up there that sent me down here?"

The boy's eyes seemed to calm a little. "Yes, and I was a fool to think going down here in search of diamonds was a good idea. There's this... this thing that lives here, it's so horrible, it killed my friend!" The boy sobbed, gripping Tyron's arm with more force than he seemed capable of.

Tyron grabbed the boy by the shoulders, staring at him. "Calm down!" He shouted. "We'll get out of here, alright?" He let go and flicked his left arm out, channeling his growing frustration with the boy into magical energy and sending it through his arm. A shield of solid ice materialized along his forearm, in the shape of a diamond. The boy nodded, gulping down his frantic terror, and Tyron turned to leave the cave with him in tow.

The journey was uninterrupted for exactly four seconds. Something akin to a flash freeze struck Tyron in the back, stopping him in place. The torch went out and even Kir began to panic. Tyron! Tyron, there's something here! There's-

A bloodcurdling wail of pain shot up from someone close by, and Tyron felt the boy's grasp on his arm slacken and fall away. The torch relit itself and Tyron gasped as he saw the boy lying on his stomach where he'd fallen, an expression of pain burnt into his face. He had a gaping hole in his chest, blood already pooling around the body. Tyron backed away a few steps, raising his sword and shield warily. It's like... something tore out the kid's heart...

"That's because someone did." A voice, almost like a whisper, was suddenly in Tyron's ear. He whirled around, only to find nobody there. The torch went out again.

T-Tyron, there's a thing... He wasn't lying, but it's... it's not a human... and it's REALLY not nice...!

Kir, for the first time, sounded scared. This didn't help Tyron's own fear, which was bubbling up inside him as he felt a gust of movement stir the black air around him. Out of the corner of his vision, a pure white face appeared. Large, blank, round eyes, and a chilling grin. Tyron turned towards it, but it was gone already.

"You thought Herobrine was fear...?" The voice said again. Tyron growled and spun, his blade cutting through the air around him. The voice laughed, a sickening noise that echoed through the cave with deafening madness.

"Who are you!?" Tyron cried out, sinking to his knees as a wave of terror immobilized him. He gripped at his head as he began to feel the creature rooting through his mind, digging out the worst of his memories all at once, overwhelming him.

Tyron! Get up! Tyron! Kir's voice, frantic and terrified, was a mere murmur behind the hurricane of panic and fear swirling about in Tyron's own mind.

"I... I am called Freak, little hero. And I've made a friend." A blurry figure, almost as though it was made of smoke, materialized in front of Tyron, wearing that same glowing face he saw earlier. "He agreed to let me have your world if I found a way to bring you to him." His foot suddenly lashed out and hit Tyron in the forehead, knocking him onto his back. "Where I get to watch as he tears you apart... Because there your precious dragons will not be able to assist you when you're about to die."

 **The world opened up as Freak laughed again, swallowing Tyron in a chasm of unnatural darkness that seeped into his mind and slowly put him down to unconsciousness. Kir's frantic attempts to wake him followed him through into a stream of nightmares, terrorizing him until his arrival in the world Freak told of.**


	7. Prologue 7: David and Destiny

Lying on the ground, helpless and vulnerable; David was motionless under the rubble. The cave was about to collapse. The sound of boulders plummeting to the ground awoke David and made him come to his senses. The adrenaline from the battle wore off and the shearing pain struck him in his cuts and possibly broken limbs.

This was it, he thought to himself. He was going to die.

Suddenly, he felt a soft hand his own, dragging him somewhere. Despite the condition he was in, he knew who was holding on to him in the shattering mine.

Minutes later, the sun's rays pressed on his face and he knew it was daylight. After that, the world disintegrated.

David woke up to the touch of fabric being pressed on a cut located on his arm. It burnt like hell and he let out a moan in pain.

"It's okay. That was the last one."

As he sat up and observed the area around him, an instant, piercing pain shot into his rib. Destiny eased him down and was back to lying there on the grass.

"You sat up too quickly."

"I noticed." he shook his head and groaned as he felt his entire body ache. "So, what happened?"

Destiny pointed at the rumble blocking the cave entrance. "The mine collapsed. Supports fell down after your battle."

"And Martin?"

"Most likely dead."

David sighed in relief. "At least we don't have to worry about the Sovereign anymore."

Destiny nodded, "Hopefully."

David decided to slowly sit up, grabbing his rib and surveying the area. Still hurt like hell, but at least he was up. Countless trees surrounded them while he sheltered under a towering one. The sun was shining brightly, piercing through the cluster of clouds in the sky.

"I think we should get going..." David said as slowly raised himself up.

"But you're still recovering! You need to rest."

He groaned as he got up while Destiny supported him up. "I'm hurt, I didn't get my limbs ripped off."

She rolled her eyes and looked at David directly, "Are you sure you want to go?"

David sighed. He knew it was hard to resist those convincing, gorgeous blue eyes. But they had to keep going.

"Yeah."

"Okay then..." Destiny said quietly.

The two walked for a while and didn't know where they were going. But as long as David was away from the mine, he was content. That place had changed him. Made him see what he was capable of. What he would do if he lost Destiny. David gripped Destiny a bit closer to him. He wasn't gonna let her go again.

On the bright side, the environment around us looked beautiful and in harmony for once. The soft breeze from the north whisked by them and the trees; the tall grass and flowers danced with the graceful wind. Wildlife, unhindered by the collapse of an entire underground labyrinth, roamed the forest carelessly. Everything seemed so unnaturally serene.

"Hey David..."

"Yeah?" David said weakly, still feeling his ribs ache with pain.

"Where are we going to go? We have no home anymore..."

David tightened my jaw. The thought hadn't reached him for what their destination was.

Everywhere they've gone or ever place they've called home has been destroyed. Sandshard, the settlement, they've been nomads for so long and never stayed in one place for long. Martin had taken away not just their home, but any home they had. Without knowing it, they've left an unintentional path of destruction and carnage where ever they've gone. The blood of those people who died are as equally on their hands as they were on Martin's. David didn't share this morbid thought with Destiny because he didn't want her to feel bad. After what happened in the mine.

"We'll make a home… Get the materials for it and everything. Just the two of us. No more fighting. We'll live off the land."

"Not sure if we'll last long..."

"Last?" David turned to Destiny, "Come on.. I'm sure we'll finally have some time to relax. Hey, maybe we can finally go sailing... Just like you said you wanted to."

She snickered, as if she had forgotten about what just happened, "You really think so?"

"Of course! I'll even name the boat. The Bright Destiny! How about it?"

She laughed, "Okay sure. It's a terrible name though."

Now David was laughing, "Whatever you say Destiny."

She was smiling now. Mission accomplished for today I guess, David thought. This was one of the few moments they've actually had time alone. Other times they've been in battle, with others, or planning attacks. He had to savor the moment.

David and Destiny continued forward. Speaking of savoring the moment, David noticed something about the environment. As they kept walking, he felt a strange sense of déjà vu wash over him. He's seen here before...

Once we reached the beautiful coast line, he knew exactly where they were.

"This is where I spawned..." Destiny muttered softly.

"Where we spawned," David corrected her.

It was all the same. The same sparkling water and bright, high sun. The same forest that David ventured off into to eventually and inadvertently find Destiny. Even the same crafting table by the tree, he noticed as he looked back. It still has scratches on it from the first time he got attacked.

"How did we-"

Destiny froze when she looked right.

David did so also, "Wait. What are you-"

Not too far from them was a portal. David knew clearly it was a portal due to the rectangular shape and gel-like substance in the middle. But it wasn't made of the same materials nether portals are usually made of. It had a dark red, solid material as the rectangle base and a black, gel-like substance flowing in the middle. Why was it here?

"No, no, no, no, no... We are not doing this again. Destiny, let's go."

He unwrapped his arm from around her and grabbed her hand.

"Wait! David, this has to be here for a reason."

"No reason that concerns us. Destiny let's go."

"But David-"

"No arguments! We're leaving!" Okay, no more yelling. Ribs are hurting.

She escaped his grip.

"I know it looks dangerous and we barely got out of the Eternal Mine, but this is here for a reason!"

"Destiny, we're not going to discuss this. Let's-"

"Why not? What are you so afraid of? This has to have been here for some reason."

"I don't want to see you get hurt..."

Destiny approached him, "That's not it. What is it?"

David gulped, "I don't want to fight anymore."

"Are you sure that's it?" Destiny knew her too well and saw he was lying. He wasn't going to budge anytime soon. Or was he?

"Destiny…"

"Don't 'Destiny' me, what are you so afraid of?"

"I don't want to lose you again!" David shouted as he snapped.

Destiny froze and stared at him in shock. The two both stayed silent for a bit. David's shout echoed throughout the coast. He didn't know it could do that, but even he was surprised by what he just did.

Finally, he made a move and brought her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her.

"I don't want to lose you again, Destiny..."

She slowly wrapped her arms around his neck, "I'm not going anywhere, David..."

"Please... promise me that."

Destiny relaxed her face and smiled, "I promise."

David half smiled, "I love you, Destiny."

She raised herself to his level, pulled him in, and pressed her lips against his. Although they had both just gone through hell and lived in the wilderness for months, David thought her kiss was still electrifying. For how long they stood there, David didn't know. It was a beautiful eternity.

"I love you too, David..." she whispered as she hugged David and buried her face in his chest.

"This looks very familiar, doesn't it An?"

"Don't say that in front of the children."

David and Destiny turned to our left and there were Carter and Anya, present in spirit form, watching them. Carter was wearing the same clothes he had in the dream: black/red jacket, dark blue jeans, and white running shoes. Anya was wearing a gray hoodie with white designs on the back, blue jeans, black shoes, and a backpack. She also had her hair in a ponytail. How convenient, David thought, just like Destiny.

David released Destiny, embarrassed someone like their own um... ancestors (?) were watching them. His face felt warm because of the awkwardness.

He looked over at Destiny and she looked more embarrassed than he probably did, trying to hide her blush. She still looked adorable.

Carter spoke first. "Sorry to ruin your... moment, really, but Destiny's right. This portal is here for a reason," Carter said as he pointed at it, "I don't know specially, but it involves you two."

"I was hoping it didn't..." David sighed.

"We don't all get what we want, David." Anya said, feeling some sympathy for what they have and had to do.

"Now, before you obligatorily go, you need to be prepared for whatever's in there. You defeated Martin, but a greater threat awaits. I sense a strong presence in there, so you won't go in empty handed." He laughed and crossed his arms, "I've always wanted to say that... An, would you please give our... um, these guys their presents?"

Anya took off her backpack and put it down. She opened it up and withdrew its contents.

The first object she pulled out was a gauntlet, similar to the ones David had at Sandshard. But, they seemed different from those because these glow a faint blue color. Probably enchanted, but other than that, they were the same braces from the battle.

"David, these are replacements for the ones you... lost at Sandshard. They're not ordinary. They're enchanted by the Hollow Emerald itself. Increased strength, more damage all that stuff."

David put the gauntlet on his right hand. It was surprisingly comfortable, he thought to himself.

"They also have other powers, but we've never actually tested it," Carter added.

I deployed a contraption's blade from the bottom of the gauntlet. A sharp, short blade popped out of the gauntlet.

"I already like it," he said smiling and admiring the weapon.

"There's more to that, but I'm sure you'll find out as you go. Now for Destiny," Carter said as Anya reached over for the backpack and lifted it. Walking, or floating, slowly over to Destiny, she handed her the backpack. Destiny's gift was the pack itself. The backpack was colored a faded, aged white, but looked somewhat durable from the stitch somehow still in place.

"The backpack?" Destiny asked in confusion.

"It's not just a backpack. Say 'Flight.'" Anya explained.

"What?"

Anya crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes with a smile, "Just do it. You'll love it."

"Okay... Flight?"

At the moment of the spoken word, huge wings popped out of the backpacks side. Destiny got startled by the sudden appearance and almost toppled over. The wings looked man-made and were made of white fabric and a wooden frame across it held it together.

"The Da Vinci Wings of Flight. Built off the same design from the genius himself. Our old friend helped us make these and enchanted them to be voice activated and actually enable flight. And everything is voice activated now, so yeah. And it works just like a backpack so you can put stuff in there." Carter glared at Destiny, "Those were mine so take good care of them."

David was about to ask them who this "Da Vinci" guy was, but Destiny spoke first.

"Wait, I can actually fly with these!?" Destiny marveled nostalgically and admiring the wings.

She tried to jump, but Carter stopped her.

"Yes! You can fly, but you need a running start and the wings have a limit to how long they can be used."

"Oh..." Destiny said, disappointed.

Anya laughed a little, "Don't worry. You'll be able to use those in due time... maybe. But right now, a new adventure awaits! Go my child!"

"Yeah, you better get going."

"What about you guys?" I asked.

Carter smiled, "We'll be fine, hanging around like ghosts and stuff. Don't worry."

David and Destiny embraced each other one last time. They looked back at Carter and Anya, holding hands.

"Don't die!" Anya shouted out.

"We'll try not to this time!"

David looked at Destiny one more time.

"Ready for another adventure?" David asked.

"Together?" Destiny said in reply.

"Together."

The duo walked through the red and black portal, hand in hand, not knowing what would be on the other side. Little did they know that a trap was sprung with strange soldiers cornering them around the portal.

 **This certainly wasn't going to end well.**


	8. Prologue 8: Kay

**Prologue 7:** _Kay (Fall and a Rise: A Vanilla Craft Tale)_

I jolted awake with a start, adrenaline pumping gloriously through me and cold sweat glistening on my brow. "Where am I?" Thought I, needing reminding.

I looked up. The sky was a navy blue, speckled with milky white stars. I was in the middle of a cave, just beneath a large hole which opened up to the sky. The moon was but a sliver tonight and already the first slivers of sunlight were beginning to slip forward.

I looked around, struggling to pull myself up in my diamond shell; the cave we were in was somewhat lush and arguably rather beautiful. In the centre there was a small pool of water. On the floor was a great, uninterrupted shoot of grass. Around the cave were spread several individuals.

There was the young, but hulking half-breed Mini curled up in the corner, his trench-coat wrapped tightly around his lop-sided shoulders. His green speckled skin was flecked with sweat.

Leant against him was Bokane, a fierce young Thaumaturge with heavy sandy blond hair and thick purple garb. He had a fiery temper, and was reluctant to join them at first. However, he had seen reason and come with them on their journey to the Vanilla Craft.

In the corner the ever-shabby Gracey slept in a curled up ball, holding his switchblade loosely in a limp hand; his great brown mop of hair covered all but a slyly grinning mouth.

Small was washing his pale face and equally pale hair in the pool, completely uninterested in my presence.

Lastly there was Aaron. He was the only one awake, leaning nonchalantly against the frame of the cave and staring out into the coming dawn. I edged my way up to him, brushing my auburn hair out of my eyes and straightening my hooded scarf. I rubbed some of the worst of the dirt and grime off the obsidian breastplate and made my presence known.

"Hail captain, how goes the watch?" I asked in an overly theatrical voice.

"Uneventful." He remarked his smooth olive skin was creased by a small smile at my usual greeting. He stepped out on to the grass before our little shelter. "Apart from that."

He pointed out across the small valley at a small fire and a few tents. The fire was still going, but dying a lingering death, with just one man left behind to prod the remains and keep it going as long as possible.

"A couple of people camped out near the nearest Nether Portal, so what?" I remarked, coming up beside him. I realised that my goggles were badly lopsided and set about straightening them as painlessly as possible.

We were avoiding the Nether highway as much as possible. Horrible rumours about some psychopaths taking able-bodied people as slaves and burning the corpses of the others. We were at risk from Vareide out here, but it was still less dangerous. He'd have to be really fuming that we'd escaped him and Vechs. From what I could tell he was just annoyed that we blew a massive crater in the walls of one of his arenas and made a total farce of his "Survival Games".

Now we were fleeing for refuge in the Vanilla Craft, in a different bloody continent. That was why Astro, Brit and Gracey out. They were making sure that all our visas were all worked out, being the least likely to get us into another private war. The last thing we needed now was another scuffle because our documents were improperly arranged.

But the Vanilla Craft seemed really promising. We finally had a chance to really settle down for the first time since Worth cast me out of Zine Craft and Herobrine's Great Onslaught began. We'd tried settling in the Killer Craft and Mega Craft. However, in Killer's domain we got into a war with a certain order of ninjas and a cult and were forced to flee, and the Administrator of the Mega Craft had no reservation with tipping off Vareide's men as to our location.

"Not much, thing is there were about six of them earlier and they were all armed. Then they wandered off towards the Nether Portal." Aaron explained, bringing me back from my exposition-fuelled daydream. "One was pretty massive and hulking, and wearing some sort of white mask. I'm worried that our friend to the East might have outsourced."

"Where's Secret?"

"Out hunting, it's my job to keep an eye on the cave mouth. That's what he agreed. Listen Kay…"

"I'll go check it out mate." I clapped it on the shoulder, grinning. "I know how Secret gets about people going against what he specifically planned. He'll never obey it himself but by Notch he gets angry when you follow his example."

I began sprinting down the rocky face, surefooted as an animal that almost precisely resembles (and probably was) a mountain goat… assuming that a mountain goat too were weighed down as by a crap tonne of rock and metal.

"Kay!" He called as I slid clumsily to the bottom. I turned, still grinning. "Try not to start another Onslaught while you're at it! If it's a bunch of Inquisition Officers just get out of there! Don't defile their entire sacred doctrine in front of them this time!"

"Oh come on Aaron! That was only the once and they were asking for it!"

"They made a comment about you being overly hostile and you set fire to a copy of their sacred texts!" He yelled back. "You then proceeded to urinate on the fire to put it out and then explained to them why they were scum so vile that even the Nether would spit them out!"

"I'm not in the wrong if I don't directly insult them!" I laughed, running off as he sighed.

A few minutes later I had edged around their campsite, taking a good look at their man at the campfire. He was fairly bulky, dressed in hardened leather.

I prayed that they were all equipped like this. I had Apotyre, my training and my armour. If they were this poorly prepared then I could beat them no matter how many there were.

I slipped up through the small pass to the Nether portal. It opened up into a large circular area, with a thick ring of earth around the sides. In the centre was a pack of five men. Four were dressed like the man at the campfire. The fifth was different.

He wore no armour beyond some heavy steel gauntlets and guards on his arms and legs. Apart from this he wore a trench-coat and suit. He was tall, something close to seven foot, but he might have been even taller had he not slouched. His head was balding, with the scalp clean but a ring of hair formed wildly around the sides. Fixed on his face was a white funeral mask, virtually featureless and coldly threatening.

Even with the mask on, I knew the man from Brit's descriptions. He was Glibby the Ape, a serial killer known for brutal beatings and animalistic methods. Ironically Glibby was a trained thespian as well and actually an intellectually well-rounded individual. If it weren't for the serial killer aspect it seemed that he and I would have made gotten on quite well.

However, there was one other figure. In the background of the five there was another. He was a figure in a pristine and somewhat elaborate suit. The suit was the sort you might expect. Mostly black; tailcoat and waistcoat over baggy shirt; everything trimmed faintly with gold. The only thing missing was the beaver hat. Like Glibby he wore a funeral mask, however his was different. It was steel grey and just as shiny. He didn't do anything, or say anything. He just stood back in the shadows and watched.

They stood in silence for several minutes, staring across as the swirling purple surface of the portal expectantly, the eerie whisperings sending chills down the spines of all.

I determined that they were a group from a crime syndicate, seeking to collect the profits from the bandits on the Nether Highway and offer payment. I was about to leave and let the deal occur uninterrupted. Then something rather attention-grabbing happened.

The portal suddenly silenced the thousand ghosts whispering through it. I poked my head out from behind the rock I was crouched at to get a better look, curiosity eating at me. The thugs seemed similarly distracted. Even Glibby seemed vaguely surprised, cocking his head contemplatively. The man in the shadows was so silent he might as well have been one himself.

Then the surface of the portal flashed in a blinding torrent, and as my eyes cleared five figures emerged from the portal. When my vision was no longer plagued by floating spots of green and purple, the first thing I noticed was the portal. No longer was it its usual royal purple, but now it was an orphan blue. The whispers were gone, instead replaced by the roaring cry of total silence.

Then I saw the figures. They looked human enough at first glance from my still week eyes. But then I noticed. Three of the figures were inexplicably Endlings.

 _"Bugger, the plot always thickens most irresistibly when you want beyond all else to leave."_ Thought I, going through the stage of my "nonsensical philosophy" phase where things still made remote sense, as opposed to the gibberish it later devolved into.

They had the usual height, as well as the muscular frame. The purple eyes and vapour were there. However, there was still something different about them. Their jaws were less protruding and the teeth no longer sword-like. In addition, the texture of the skin was different. As opposed to being charred and burned like the skin of most Endlings (and believe me, I've seen a few), these creatures had smoother, more reptilian skin. It shone in the early morning sunlight in a metallic manner.

In addition, they lacked the contempt-filled glances and pompous aura towards humans that Endlings usually had. Instead they were formal and business-like, arms fixed behind their backs; while they were indisputably cold in aura, they were not necessarily abrasive. They were also far less likely to sprint at and disembowel the nearest human than those I was familiar with, but that was self-evident.

The other was a figure clad all in bronze. Not an inch of his flesh was exposed. His build was fairly thick and sturdy, but at the same time his height made him look flimsier than he actually was.

Then there was some small human. He was white-skinned and middle-aged. His eyes were carved with lines of age that one could swear had never been absent. His clothing was dirty and he was thin. But what was unsettling about him was the queer emotionlessness he carried himself with.

He was the one who stepped forward, his legs somewhat shaky.

"The Entity would like to send his most good wishes to the Silhouette and his many followers." The dirty man blandly recited before pausing. "We have come to finish our transaction." There was something of a tinny echo to his voice, and his speech was distinctly off.

Then Glibby walked forward to meet him, chest pushed out proudly. From his pocket came an orb about the side of its fist. He held it out at arm's length, as if repulsed by it. He kept eying it At first it was a greenish-blue, like the sea. It was just the heart of an Endling; difficult to acquire but somewhat common. It was just a group of Endlings retrieving the remains of their fallen brother or father from the bandits who killed him to the outside world. But upon closer inspection there was a subtly crackling gash of flame.

"An Eye." I inwardly gasped. "There is no chance I can back out now."

I knew not the full power of one of the true Eyes of Ender, not the mockeries made by men. I don't even know why they're called Eyes. They're the hearts of the Dragon Priests for Jeb's sake! But what I did know was that everyone unpleasant I'd encountered up to this point had wanted an Eye for their nefarious purposes. Hamish had wanted one. Vechs was on the hunt for one as we spoke. The Obsidian Family had a tomb full of them and used them to open a portal which destroyed the Zine Craft almost entirely. They could never be mentioned in conversation without a shudder going down everyone's spines for reasons no one was quite sure of. The only good news involving an Eye, was that it had been destroyed for good.

"You shall come and receive it then." His voice was definitely that of an actor, booming and with something of a magical quality.

The servant came up and took it from the Ape's hands. There was none of the hesitation, or delicate handling another might have had. This bizarre servant came up, looked at Glibby with a strange coldness and blankness, placed his hand on the orb and took it.

"Now, your payment." He said in the same coldness. "Knowledge."

The Endlings looked bizarrely satisfied by this. I leant out further. The copper-plated man was unreadable.

The shadowy man stepped forward and began to approach the servant slowly and in a very measured manner, both hands fixed in his pocket. All of the men within his party parted in both terror and something of respect. Even the Endlings seemed somewhat unsettled by him.

"Who are you?" Thought I. How could one, quite feeble-looking man hold such a power over men?

Then, he was but four paces from the servant, who was completely impassive like his master, and he stopped. He pulled the mask from his face and dropped it to the floor.

"You remove your mask?" The servant responded quizzically, genuinely interested.

"What care do I have that some foreigner sees my face? You will gain nothing from this insight. I assure you."

I however thought this might have been quite interesting, but life's an overly dramatic fellow so his face was naturally out of the light and any attempt to find a better vantage point would have alerted the group to my presence.

The servant seemed to confer with himself for a brief moment before stating. "Your reasoning is sound."

"Good to hear it." I just noticed how hard it was to place this man's voice. It was completely neutral in accent, inflection, and incredibly hard to remember. "Now, the knowledge you promised me." He was impatient now.

"Of course."

This is where things took a plummeting turn for the worse.

The servant suddenly became a fluctuating mass of grey and black, his skin fluctuating like boiling water. His features just melted away. His clothing practically evaporated.

The shadowy man was taken aback, frozen by fear. This was his mistake.

The boiling hand pierced his chest, phasing through the shadowy figure's chest as if he were but air. At first, he simply stared at the hand in a stunned manner, wondering whether or not he was dead yet. But this last no longer than a second, before he petrified silence turned to distorted cries of agony. The liquid hand began to boil even more, and spread across the skin of the shadowy man, turning him into a similar black mass.

All the while, neither Glibby nor the copper-plated man were remotely phased. The Endlings took a bizarre satisfaction from his suffering, whilst the thugs were terrified by it. One actually ran forward to stop it, but was stopped by the metal hand of Glibby.

The grey taint was now at his throat, and he began to gasp. Then, from his pocket came his hand, a little cylinder in his hand. He gave it a pained look, and pressed the button on the top inward. There was a flash, followed by a straggling bang. This time I had the sense to shield my eyes, and when I turned back, neither was there. All that remained was the Eye of Ender, somehow still intact in the centre of a small crater, seemingly shielded by plot convenience.

"The act is done." Said the copper-plated man in the same voice of the servant. "It was messier than intended but nonetheless, it is done."

"So," Glibby asked incredulously. "This was just an elaborate attempt on my master's life?" He scoffed as he did so.

"We wished to gain the knowledge that he held. We took it." He paused, his bland tone somehow seeming mocking. "No harm was intended to his life. That was inflicted by himself."

"The Eye honestly means nothing?" Glibby was almost laughing.

"It meant nothing." The copper-plated man emphasised. "With the knowledge gained from that exchange, I now know better. This will make at the very least a useful bargaining chip."

Glibby then nodded in a conceding fashion and began to retreat slowly.

The copper-plated man turned to his Endlings. "Kill them; no witnesses. Then bring to me the Eye. I shall see you upon the moment of your return. Do not disappoint."

Then he jerked slightly and collapsed. His helmet rolled off to reveal some rather regular looking man of no consequence. I had no time to examine his face as the Endlings set about slaughtering the men.

They were no creatures of this world. Their talons were longer and sharper than the Endlings of our world. Their movements were somewhat slower. But what really stood out, was that they were not held back by any fatigue. They would teleport without even flinching, and then do so again a second later. I was taken aback and so were the men. They were losing already. Glibby was struggling with one of the Endlings, actually putting up a fair fight and landing his fair share of good blows, as he struggled to approach the Eye.

I ran for the Eye, hurtling down into the pit with my armour. Once I grabbed it they would all direct their attention to me fully. There was too much at risk to let their eyes fall off of it for even a second.

They noticed me before I even got near it. One of the thugs broke off from saving his comrade and rushed me, swinging with his mace. I ducked under and continued running, slowing slightly to strike the base of his skull with the pommel of Apotyre.

I was then right before the subtly burning orb. To my right an Endling materialised, and before me a thug charged. The Endling tried to sweep my legs from beneath me, so I sprung up and slammed my feet into the chest of the thug, slashing at the Endling as I fell. He vanished and I pulled myself up, snatched up the Eye and in the space of a second assessed the best way forward.

The path I came was no option, nor was the path beside Glibby. The portal was still blue, but for all I knew it was just a normal gateway into Nether itself with a little smoke and mirrors around it. This weird being was likely magic. And magic could do things. Maybe this was an aesthetic thing, and Copper was just a show-off.

Nonetheless I was still uncertain. I slashed again at the Endling, driving them back swiftly. I ran for the side, hoping to pull myself up quickly whilst the others were still squaring off.

However, I quickly felt a large weight on my back, and a horrible scraping noise chewed on my ears and pierced my brain.

I couldn't hold on. I felt the grass tearing free from the dirt. I slipped back but I was ready. I swung wildly, causing the Endling on my back to vanish, and catching a thug in the eye. He fell back reeling, weeping and crawling away.

I rushed, swinging at anything that came near, running for the portal.

Glibby cried out, "Destroy it!"

Time slowed down. One thug pulled out a small black orb and made to throw it at the portal. The Endlings were terrified, all vanishing in tandem. I kept running. Glibby, monster that he was still pursuing, gauntleted fists swinging like murderous pendulums in a clock.

 _[Author's note] I guess you could say they were **telling me the time of my death!** *holds up hand for hi-5*_

Nonetheless, I kept pelting forward, armoured shell weighing me down. Sweat was permeating every inch of me. My heart was racing, yet my perception was so slow that I could measure every single beat. I loved that feeling.

I leapt, throwing myself at the portal, looking back as I hurtled toward it like a human missile. Glibby was still reaching, but falling behind, murdering visible in the tiny slats of eyes that were there for me to see. The Endlings had caught the thug mid-swing. Two had their talon-like fingers planted into all of the breaks in his armour, red staining them. The other was fending off the last thug.

But something was wrong, the black ball was still flying, and it was going just faster than Glibby. I hit the surface of the portal and my very matter was stretched out and twisted. The face of the Ape was minimised as I flew through a white nothing. I saw in the whiteness little. Every here and there, there was a little window giving a glimpse of some location or event. Here a desert with traders approaching. There an overgrown city with buildings I could not place.

As I was sucked across this endlessness the images became more and more outlandish. People became more reptilian in places. A man in skeletal armour fought his way through the night. The a dragon made of pure shadow taunting some young adventurer. I saw creatures of fur standing upright and acting as men. Men composed of cubes tormenting innocent beings. Two storms fighting each other, with a Wither in one and a little girl in another. Entire cities evaporating into chasms of light.

 **Then it all vanished, and I was blinded once more.**

* * *

 _Well, that's the Prologues for the Convergence done, we should be commencing the actual start of the story very soon indeed. Stay tuned and be ready, as the questions are answered. Who is the copper-plated man? What is Freak? What do they wish to do? Who are these characters and how will they react to a world outside of their own? What's the tie between Astro and Kay?_


	9. Chapter 1: On Unfamiliar Footing

We're back! New Chapters coming every day or two. All reviews are appreciated! If you have any questions, just ask away. We'd be glad to oblige. :)

 _The chapter below was written by Nomolos1, author of The Herobrine Chronicles_

* * *

This ground was unfamiliar terrain; Steve knew every square metre of ground for kilometres around the mansion, and this wasn't any of it. It was a plains with a large amount of tall grass splattered around it. Steve was falling very quickly toward the ground, so he did what he always did in these situations: he whipped an ender pearl down toward the ground, and Jennifer followed suit. The other man didn't, and when Steve teleported onto the ground, he looked up. The man was nowhere in sight, nor was the pitch black area that Steve was falling through. It was evening, and everything around him was still brighter than whatever Steve was falling through. Suddenly, Steve saw the man appear out of midair, falling toward the ground. He quickly decelerated and lightly touched the ground, but in tall grass about twenty metres away. Steve ran toward the tall grass, Jennifer following behind him.

The man was in the tall grass, holding his injured knees. He saw Steve and Jennifer and immediately stared straight at them. His eyes were flooded with a horrifying blackness, an empty void. He reached an arm out at Steve and Jennifer and they again encountered a loss of vision, but this time much shorter, about three times as long as if they were travelling by means of ender pearl, which was no more than an instant or two. When they landed, they didn't receive any harm, though, and yet again they were in unfamiliar terrain, however this time they were deep in a roofed forest.

Steve, living in a large clearing surrounded by a roofed forest, immediately took out his supply of dirt and began towering up to above the leaves. Jennifer did the same. However, the dirt simply fell apart in their hands and piled up messily.

"What?!" Steve exclaimed.

"I'm not sure what's happening." Jennifer replied.

"Well, let's just cut down the tree a bit." Steve suggested.

"Okay." Jennifer agreed, still very much perplexed.

Steve took out his diamond axe and began to cut down one of the large trees. It was quite easy with the enchantments, however when Steve was about to finish cutting out a large gap of the tree, it began to tip over toward him. Jennifer had been working on a tree behind him and wasn't aware of this; Steve began to leap toward her and push her out of the way, but the tree was quite a lot faster than him, so he only made it to a metre in front of Jennifer when the tree came falling down toward them both, picking up speed rapidly, and-

Steve looked up. The tree had stopped. It had fallen right onto the trunk of the one that Jennifer had started cutting.

"Well, then." Steve said, puzzled.

"I guess we go up this one's trunk to get on top?" Jennifer suggested.

Steve shrugged. "I guess so."

The couple ventured up the trunk and attempted to stand on the leaves, but fell through.

"Well." Steve stated simply.

"I suppose we walk, then?"

"I'd hate to go through the forest in the evening, when monsters are going to kill us even in the daytime, but I guess it's the only way." Steve reasoned.

"I suppose," Jennifer agreed uncertainly, "So we'll have to hurry."

"Definitely," Steve said, lifting Excalibur, "So get your sword out."

Jennifer unsheathed her own diamond sword. "Which way do we go?"

"Well," Steve began, and went up the trunk of the tree, "West is that way," Steve pointed to his left, "And there's a mountain to the northeast. We can build a hidey-hole in there, and if we'll be here for a while we'll need minerals."

"That's a good idea."

And they advanced northeast.

Steve and Jennifer had progressed approximately twenty paces before a clink of bone sounded off to the side of the path and an arrow flew into Steve's shoulder. His armour snapped the arrow, but then another arrow hit him. This one found its way into the back of Jennifer's hand, causing her to drop her sword.

" _Ow!_ " Jennifer shouted. Another two arrows hit Steve's hip and grazed his cheek. There were at least four skeletons. Steve spun to the right and in one smooth move sheathed his sword, equipped his bow, readied an arrow in it, pulled it back and released it, the bow's enchantments wisping out onto the arrow and lighting it ablaze in midair. The skeleton flew back, its bones scorched, and fell apart at the same time.

Steve shot another arrow, but this one missed slightly to the right of the skeleton. However, another arrow put the skeleton out of commision; this one was shot by Jennifer. The two skeletons that were left shot at Steve and Jennifer, both arrows hitting, one in Steve's chest and the other in Jennifer's stomach. This caused both humans to miss their shots, however Steve's missed enough that it hit the skeleton that Jennifer was aiming for. Jennifer quickly fired another arrow that hit the one skeleton still standing, but not before the skeleton shot an arrow that flew right toward Jennifer's face. She quickly ducked, and Steve, who was looking at the arrow's path, saw a large green beast advancing toward Jennifer. Steve, knowing he didn't have much time before the beast exploded, and definitely not enough to re-quiver his arrow and switch his sword out for a bow, shot the creeper in the side of the head. It began to hiss and flash.

When Jennifer ducked, the arrow hit the creeper in the mouth and caused it to fall to the ground. Its body didn't disappear, nor did those of the skeletons, but it did leak a small pool of dark red blood around its head. Gunpowder spilled onto the ground and a black disc made an appearance by slicing through the dead creature's stomach.

"Well, that's disturbing." Steve commented.

"What's wrong with this place?" Jennifer asked. "Trees are weird, creepers are weird, everything else is weird."

"I'm not sure."

In their trek through the dark forest, roofed with thick leaves, the pair encountered several foes, the lifeless bodies of all of them remaining where they had fallen. They finally reached the mountain by midnight and Steve took out his diamond pickaxe and swiped it down at a rock wall near the base of the mountain. He quickly cleared out a small area, lit it with torches and closed up the entrance. He put down his ender chest and took two beds, altogether four cubic metres, out of the chest that measured less than one. Unexcited about this action, as it was, after all, completely normal, he put the two beds down on opposite sides of the small room. He then swiped at the ender chest with his diamond pickaxe and dropped it into the depths of his pocket. Steve then plopped down, exhausted, into one bed, and Jennifer the other.


	10. Chapter 2: The Void

Chapter 2. As Fristad travels through the space between spaces, another presence makes itself known.

 _This chapter was written by Asanetargoss, author of The Book of Dreams._

* * *

The man had waited several hours, suspended in this dark place he did not understand. At first, he didn't know how to react to his impending death. After a moment, he decided he ought to pay respect to the memories of his family and friends. Once that was over, however, he didn't know what else to think about.

He shook his head. "Here I am," he thought, "just floating in the middle of nowhere, a place so pitch-black that I can't even see my hands in front of me, with nothing to look forward to and nowhere to go. I'm just stuck here, completely idle and useless. All I can do is think. Why is it, then, that I can't make the most of these last few moments of my life? How much time do I have left, anyway?"

"I do not know, Fristad," the female voice inside of his head replied, "this current is very long. You could always try not thinking."

Fristad became frustrated. "I didn't ask for your advice! The last thing I want to do right now is wait complacently for the end. Of course, you would never be able to understand because you're just an inanimate object with no common sense..." his fists clenched, "...or empathy... or sense of purpose."

"So, in short, I have no human weaknesses. On the other hand, here you are, a victim to your own emotions, complaining of a fate you cannot change. Must you be so obnoxious? You are pathetic."

"I hate yo-"

With an eardrum-shattering bang, Fristad found himself jerked backwards and plunged into a kaleidoscope of changing colors, which passed by like the flashing light of landscapes inside the car of a passing train. Fristad turned his head and squinted. Images seemed to hover still in front of his eyes one by one before flying away. He saw, blurred, but still visible, a man wearing goggles and a labcoat; what seemed to be an enderman but was covered in scales, tunneling through rock with a pickaxe; a village burning under a floating, shiny-faced man; an army of dragons; a young boy with dirty blonde hair sitting in front of some rectangular object that had a glowing side on it, tapping different places on some plastic thing lying on the desk he was in front of; a group of teenagers playing Dungeons and Enderdragons, and then Fristad sped up enough that he could only see splotches of colour and light.

"Oh Notch. Oh J- Jeb. Th- this is it! This is it! I'm gonna die!" Fristad blurted out impulsively. His lips were trembling.

"Fear not, Fristad! There is hope for us just yet. I see an end to the current..."

"What do you mean? Where are we going?"

A moment passed in silence before the voice could answer.

"Very, very far from home."

The torrent of colors stabilized into a blueish grey. Fristad felt his feet gently press against slightly spongy ground. He stood upright slowly, his back suddenly burdened by the return of gravity. He looked around and saw himself surrounded by trees, bathed in the faint light of the approaching dawn.

Fristad took a big breath and let out a long, angry scream.


	11. Chapter 3: Evaluating the Situation

Fire arrives in this new world and begins to attempt to figure out its boundaries.

 _This chapter was written by SuperFire131, author of Slaves of the Desert Mine._

* * *

Fire snapped back from being unconscious to being wide awake, an intense pain flared up inside his entire body but then subsided quickly, probably an effect of the dimensional pull. Fire opened his eyes and noticed in shock that he had appeared a good ten meters in the air. His perception slowed down, giving him time to get his bearings. He opened his arms and legs, trying to get into an upright position. He hit the ground with his feet first but instead of cushioning the fall like expected, they gave in below Fire and he fell over. Fire tried moving his limbs but it seemed like he couldn't build up any muscle tension.

He muttered into the red, rocky ground: "I hope that this is just a side effect of the potion..."

After lying on the ground for a few minutes, Fire felt his strength return, he rose up onto his feet, his heavy backpack not hindering him in the slightest. He adjusted his short white hair, which had been messed up by the fall. Now he had time to take a closer look at his surroundings as he wasn't falling anymore. He seemed to be at the bottom of a deep canyon made from a reddish, sandy rock. The sky above him was blue and the sun was at its zenith, burning down into the canyon, making Fire's scales shimmer. At the very top of the canyon Fire could see something that looked like vines growing down, it seemed like a jungle was growing on top of the canyon. Very strange as jungles never seemed to be in dry, hot areas, which this definitely was.

Fire thought: "Let's see if everything is still there... you never know with... was that dimensional travel? Fairly certain it was. Best explanation. That or the server's glitched and I've entered a secondary world. Actually, that's a fairly logical explanation."

Fire took off his backpack and checked it's contents and also those of the bags that were hooked onto his main backpack. After a few minutes he was content to see that everything was at it's place: Most importantly his Wither Dagger, the Ghast Bone Bow and the Blaze Core but also his potions, food and extra clothes.

"Well, I'm not going to need the winter jacket here." he commented.

Fire tried to access the pause menu but then noticed that he couldn't, his inventory didn't work either...

After trying one more time he thought: "This is strange... I can't go into the pause menu... the admins wouldn't do that. Wait... as improbable as this sounds. I am not on the server anymore! Oh no... this is not good."

Fire felt a surge of panic run through his head but had himself under control again after a few moments. If he really wasn't on the server anymore and the admins weren't pulling a trick on him he would be in serious trouble. The only way he could explain this would be magic... he generally didn't believe in magic outside the server but it could still be possible. If connecting a brain to a computer was possible, why wouldn't real dimensional travel be possible? Right?

But no. That couldn't be possible. The admins had created a secondary world in a test. He drank the potion and he'd accidentally been sucked towards their new creation; probably a "hardcore survival" world of some kind. He would just have to find the admins and ask them to return him. Although he still had absolutely no clue what this world held, or if it were stable yet.

Fire sighed, if he would stand here thinking about magic he wouldn't get anywhere, right now he just had to deal with being trapped in a world unknown to him. He accepted it but he didn't like it one bit... and there was still this new fear inside him of never returning home. Fear... an emotion Fire liked to keep away where possible at all costs. _He_ was waiting for a weakness...

He picked a direction and started walking, in this case in the direction where the canyon was getting wider, maybe he would find a way up as climbing wasn't an option, even with his claws. His shoeless, scaled feet made almost no sound on the hard ground, only sometimes a small pebble flew away and hit the ground with a quiet "tic tic tic..." sound. Fire kept his eyes open and scanned the walls for any man made structures or naturally occurring stairs. Suddenly his sharp ears picked up a very quiet noise in the distance, it sounded like a waterfall. Fire would have sprinted towards the water sounds but he knew all too well that water attracted living beings and travelers, both could be dangerous as Fire didn't know anything about this world's wildlife or inhabitants. If there were any.

Even more careful not to make any noise at all Fire walked in the direction of the water, he was glad that the hooks of his backpack were constructed in such a way that they wouldn't clink. The sound got louder the closer he came to it's source, which seemed to be behind a turn in the canyon. Fire walked close to the wall and took a peek around the corner and there was indeed a waterfall. And there also was a person standing near the water and a well equipped one at that, their back turned to Fire.

Fire took mental notes: "Averagely tall... probably male... diamond armor... strange black chestplate, maybe obsidian... black sword, most likely obsidian too... brown hair..."

This sight proved multiple things to Fire: This world was still somehow connected to Minecraft, indicated by the diamond armor, and had normal humans as inhabitants. Fire decided to wait and see what would happen. The person sat down and stared into the water, reaching down with cupped hands and taking a sip. He shifted uncomfortably in his armour, as if it were burning him.

Fire came out from his cover and approached the person, his right hand inside his coat, reaching for the Wither Dagger in case he needed to defend himself but he hoped it wouldn't have to come to that. He chose his tone carefully, not aggressive but also not overly friendly, with a slight hint of inquiry in it.

"Hello."


	12. Chapter 4: In Chains

**Astro's Perspective**

I awake from the darkness that masks my miserable existence. Something is off from the moment I begin to perceive my immediate environment. The reinforced obsidian walls, the hard, cold floor that I was slumped against, and the manacles that bound my hands to the wall first caught my attention, before the true, harsh reality of the situation set in.

I was... attacked? I can barely remember beyond the lightning fast offensive they had launched upon me. The guild had turned back, deserting me just when I had needed them most. Not that I could ever blame them, really. I don't remember completely what had happened before, but then an image breaches my memory. The mysterious man in the distance. He had to be behind this. If I had even one lead about my situation, it would be him. But currently I had far worse problems on my hands.

Or perhaps 'on my wrists' would have been more appropriate.

One thing was certain about the situation. I was now held captive, at the mercy of whatever had overcome me on the Plains of Acrisius. This feeling wasn't new - twice before I had been held captive, once in the Arena, and once by Dominus. Despite this, there was something common to both times that I had never forgotten; just how desperate and twisted I had become when knowing I was not in control.

Both times, I had been able to escape, and then wreak vengeance in some way or another upon my captor. This time was different. I could feel it in the atmosphere around me, crushing me and rendering me defeated. To add to this, I was exhausted from my efforts on the plains. I had been out for days, subsisting from my magic, and the fight had finished me.

I turned my attention to the manacles around my wrists, and concentrated, willing for the raw potential energy I had to shatter pure metal. Minutes passed, yet...

Nothing?

What had seemed like a harsh reality before was a daydream blessed with hope and happiness as I got to grips with the true state of affairs. It meant one of three things. It was likely that I was truly exhausted, and use of my magic was unavailable to me, meaning I would simply have to wait until my energy built up again. It was not out of the realm of possibility that the fight on the Plains had brought me to the end, and my magical strength was leaving me, just as I would soon to be forced to leave my existence behind.

The thing that frightened me the most was neither of the above. The third possibility was that my magic was either being limited or had disappeared completely in this realm, leaving me pathetic and almost completely powerless. I could wield a sword to the level of a soldier, but nothing compared to the days where I had been trained. I could attack with my mind, although that still relied on magic to a degree. And I could snuff out my own lights too. Even with my magic limited, the 'failsafe' remained, burning at the back of my mind. It would only take one slip, and...

I was snapped out of my decision-making by faint noises, coming from outside the obsidian bars of the cell. The language was indiscernible; like nothing I had ever come across before in all my travels. The failsafe could wait for another day – the only reason I was still alive was because they wanted something from me. The only sensible course of action was to find out what, and maybe use it to my advantage. Certainly, Dominus, once he knew what I was capable of, had tried very hard to get me on his side. Whatever held me here was probably no different.

The noises grew more prominent, and before I knew it two Endlings stood outside, eyeing me with complete disgust. These Endlings I had only seen once before, but I couldn't place... of course, they were the ones who had attacked me and brought me here. I'd fought them before; maybe I could do something again? I began to run situations in my mind, trying to make a decision before they got too close. Could I outrun them? Certainly not – I was exhausted. Fighting them was out of the question without magic. And soon I reached the same conclusion as before.

Go with them, and see what they want.

The manacles were unlocked, my will instead subjugated to that of the Endlings as they hauled me out of the cell, bag over my head, towards unknown territory.

The bag was removed, the bolts on the door sealed from the outside, and I was severely disappointed by the turn of events.

The Endlings had merely moved me to another cell. This puzzled me... it would've been easier for them just to leave me there. And this was no fun, besides. I concentrated and was rewarded by the lambent flame that sat in my palm, sporadically illuminating the near darkness of my confinement.

And that's when I noticed I wasn't alone.


	13. Chapter 5: A cry

Steve and Jennifer woke up before dawn, when only slivers of sunlight were visible, as usual, and packed the beds into the ender chest and walked outside the hidey-hole. They climbed part of the way up the mountain and walked around cautiously, observing their surroundings and looking for familiar terrain. As dawn broke across the horizon (although the horizon was a bit lower from on the mountain than on the ground), they didn't see anything particularly interesting; there was an ocean nearby, a desert beyond the enormous dark oak forest they had found themselves in, and...

There was a scream. A long one. It came from the forest Steve and Jennifer were just in, close to them, but not _too_ close. A chicken near the source of the sound clucked in reply. Jennifer looked at Steve. Steve looked at Jennifer. They nodded. Steve looked back at the forest and found the general area of the scream again. Steve pulled out his bow. Jennifer pulled out a rope. Steve took out an arrow. Jennifer tied the rope to the arrow. Steve nocked the arrow. Jennifer held the other end of the rope. Steve fired the arrow towards the area the scream had come from. It landed in the dark, leafy branches of the tree he was aiming at. Jennifer tied the other end of the rope very loosely to a rock jutting out from the mountain. Steve put back his bow, shoving it into the strange, mysterious depths of his pocket. Steve and Jennifer both took ender pearls and threw one each toward the arrow. The pearls landed short, as neither of them could throw as far as they could fire an arrow. Steve and Jennifer vanished. They briefly lost their vision. They were being torn apart, pulled from themselves. Then, they landed.

Steve and Jennifer hit the soft ground of the dark, roofed forest. They looked around and saw thoroughly shaded tree trunks, rabbits hopping by trees, illuminated by the light that had beaten the sun to the dawn, and a skeleton that had just turned its attention to them. They got behind a tree so as to avoid arrows, but other than that ignored the skeleton. They looked up at the leaves in the trees. It was hard to see through the thick branches and at the dark sky, but Jennifer spotted the rope above them. She moved around, still looking at the rope, and then pointed in one of the directions the rope had come from.

"You know," said Steve, "I could have told you which way to go. The sun is over there," Steve pointed, "so we-"

"Don't waste time. We know which way to go now. Let's get moving."

Steve and Jennifer sprinted under the rope that they saw through the occasional patch of light that made its way through holes in leaves. They kept sprinting until they looked up through a hole in the branches and saw no rope. Jennifer then climbed up the nearest tree and disappeared from view, coming down soon after with the rope in her hand. The two then began to search the forest.


	14. Chapter 6: Hello

_Well, dreadfully sorry about our absence, one person who reads this story. We're back. Updates are returning every couple of days now. We're having great fun writing this story, and we hope you have fun reading it. As is obvious, any follows and favourites are appreciated. And of course, no matter what your feedback is, we'd love to hear it in the reviews section. We can't improve without knowing what we're cocking up on after all. Anyway, tell us what you think. We'd be glad to answer any questions you have about the stories involved or the characters._

 _Today's part comes from Fall and a Rise: A Vanillacraft Tale, which I have sadly recently discontinued. However, Kay is still alive and well, and my role in this project continues strong._

 _\- K/Dublin_

* * *

I came out of the portal just as quickly as, if not faster than, I came in. I flew forwards, feet flying around, groping desperately for some solid ground. All this time my vision was completely blurred.

" _Bugger, all of these bright lights and explosions are going to leave me blind some day."_ Thought I, not so keen about sharing the appearance of my former master later in life.

Then my foot caught in a hole and I fell face first into a pile of sand. I rubbed my eyes cleaned and straightened up. I was in the middle of a great canyon, surrounded by miles of rock and red sand. To my right was some small pool of water stemming from a tiny trickle of a waterfall coming down from the mountains. Behind me the portal was burned out and cracked. It was as if my being here had shattered its composition. Far off in the distance one could see the faintest wisps of smoke. And up on top of the cliffs I could see a small jungle formed. It was bizarrely out of place.

In the afternoon sun my armour burned my skin, and I would have removed it had I not felt the ever-present feeling of eyes burrowing into my skin from everywhere.

I then determined that I had best go over to the pool and drink to collect my thoughts. As I knelt, I almost intentionally drowned myself. I could be anywhere. The only places I knew of within The Sane Realm with such climates were the Tainted Land (dominated by Vechs, The Obsidian Families and the Court of Whispers) and The Southern Veil (which was largely unexplored and rumoured to have colonies made by rogue Divines and Endlings). Neither of these options were particularly pleasant. However, there was a third possibility; that I was somewhere else entirely. I mean, after all, I knew of no other portals that were blue in tint. Nor did I know of any Endlings which vaguely resembled what I saw back there.

Suddenly it hit me that in all likelihood I would never see my friends again no matter where I was. If I were in the Tainted Land it was probable that one of three things would happen. First, the Obsidian Families would find me and I would be either executed or handed over to the Court of Whispers and used as a bargaining chip in hostage exchanges. Second possibility was that Administrator Vechs, or worst yet, his Moderator, Vareide, would find me. This would result in either a painful execution or being flung back into the Games. I had barely made it out last time, and I wasn't certain that I would be able to escape with anything short of a full slave revolt. The third possibility would be that I would be enslaved by one of the less friendly Pigmen tribes and sent down to the mines.

If I were in the Southern Veil... I was doomed. There was no guarantee there was any civilization. No humans. No Endlings. Out there any number of hidden evils could lurk. At best I might die lost and alone. At worst I might awaken some ancient deity, as happened when the Divines awoke the Withers on the Isle of Norwich.

I pulled my head out of the water, panting slowly, realisation clouding my eyes. Then I lowered my head and started taking a long, calm gulp.

"Hello."

I jumped, reached for my sword and turned, ready to face whatever foe there was. Then I doubled over, coughing up water, my throat sealing itself unhelpfully. I was coughing for the next minute, eyes watering. Then I realised, I was completely unharmed. They meant no harm to me. I sighed, straightened up in a dignified and or pompous manner and responded.

"Hello. Sorry about that coughing fit but you did catch me off guard."

The figure was tall and lean. He was older than I, about 60 by my best guess. His hair was still brown, but was grey in places and the texture of his rather wild mane was like that of wilted grain. His eyes were bloodshot and saddened, but they still held energy. The clothing he wore was simple and dirty, consisting of only a faded turquoise shirt poking out from beneath a brown poncho and blue trousers. On his back a thick and evidently quite heavy stone sword was slung, the leather straps stretched taut over his shoulders.

"Sorry I did so." He stared at me with a vague satisfaction that I found far more unsettling than I should have.

"Well, I am-"

"Kay Mandy. Commandant of Herobrine's Tenth. Nicknamed Lap Dog by your peers. Infamous for your ability to poke your nose into every possible conspiracy you can find. You started out life in a Thaumic tribe before you were cast out at a very young age under very bizarre circumstances, and came under the protection of the archaeologist-"

"Okay, stop that!" I shouted, taken about, turning my face to him. "You know who I am I take it. How?"

"Oh, you've still got the other one. That's good." I paused after he said that, pointing towards my face in a manner just general enough for my entire face to prickle nervously. "Nevermind. I am Steve, although that's liable to change. Depends on who else is about. That's all you need to know right at this moment, so I cannot right now answer your question." He glared at me when I tried to protest. "Right now I need you to go against your nature and not stir up nonsense. You can do that later. Just wait here for the next few days. Two others will join you from what I can tell, and together you can travel off to the nearby village. Try not to do something stupid like kidnap the mayor while you're there."

Before I could protest he was gone. I have no idea what happened to this day. I closed my eyes and bowed my head amusedly, and began to respond condescendingly. However, I heard a rushing of wind, and he was completely gone by the time I opened my eyes.

" _How rude. I didn't even get a chance to be a total arse to him yet."_

I searched for a few minutes, but I found no trace of him, beyond the footprints where he stood. Actually, there were no marks of him approaching the oasis beyond about three metres worth. It's important to note that this was not a windy day. It was as if he had sprung into existence just a few metres away from me, and then sprung out of existence with just as much promptness.

I then sat down, looking into the still rippling water. I determined that perhaps he had been a trick of the heat. Some sort of bizarre apparition after the portal. Obviously this was an idiotic idea, but the entire situation had been ridiculous and the portal had disoriented me a little. I reached out with cupped hands and reached into the water, lifting it to my mouth.

Then for the second time that day I heard that word. "Hello."


	15. Chapter 7: Definitely in the Top 10

As David soared through a passage of eternally baffling outcomes and realities, he couldn't help but reflect on his situation. Sure, seeing a potentially reality wherein Martin had in fact been a beaver and his plan had been to flood the earth would have been greatly intriguing and perplexing, but there had been so many things going on he couldn't help but question how he'd gotten there.

" _I mean, I've had literally the worst few weeks ever. First I'm reborn in an unfamiliar world with no memory of who I am or was. Next I'm saving my future girlfriend from zombies. Then I'm getting into a longstanding feud with Herobrine's apprentice, he kills a helpful villager-man and kidnaps my newfound girlfriend, almost murders her and forces me to fight my way through his entire fortress in order to save a planet I'm barely even aware of. On top of all that, apparently I'm the reincarnated version of some ancient hero, as is Destiny."_ David thought, handily filling an internal audience in on his life's story. " _Now! Without even a second to breath or recollect myself, we are being sent to another dimension by the ghosts of our past selves for incredibly vague reasons! I officially have the least luck of any being in existence."_

A glance to the right proved him wrong; as he saw a small, yet fabulous-looking young man chained to a peg in the centre of a large battle with corpses littering the ground around him. However, David was still convinced he was at least in the top 10.

That was when he suddenly became alert, where was Destiny? He hadn't quite been aware of when he'd let go of her hand, but he reckoned it had been a few minutes ago. Surely they'd end up on the other side together, wouldn't they?

"Destiny!" He called out, lungs tightening as panic arose.

There was nothing about him except glimpses of the occident and the alien, and no sound except their faint echoes of what could have been and what might yet be. He looked forward, an overpowering blue glow was growing to consume his field of vision, wider and wider, more and more blinding.

"DESTINY-Y-Y-Y!" He shrieked, watering eyes clenched shut.

"Yes?" A familiar voice responded, smothering laughter. "I'm here."

David wrenched open his streaming eyes. Destiny standing next to him, eyes similarly red and watery, but a great grin spread across her face.

David laughed, reciprocating her smile. "Not a word out of you on this one."

"Who would I tell?" She jabbed, not quite realising - oh no - everyone she could have told was recently murdered. Gee, doesn't that kill the mood!

 _It was at this point that the narrator's boss thanked the powers that be that David couldn't hear his narrator, because said narrator was awful at parties and no one ever liked him. He then reminded the narrator to get back to bloody work and to prevent any further acts of violence against the fourth wall._

David then reached out and held her close to his chest, shutting his eyes again.

"I hate to interrupt but, this really isn't the best time." A voice from the sidelines could be heard.

They could now see that the room was a large, loosely hewn chamber within a cave system, with a few similar portals dotted around it. It was lit in a very spartan manner, with scarcely enough light reaching them to confirm that they were in fact standing on grass and not some bizarre moss. On that, the floor was indeed very grassy, and it seemed that only the roof of the cave was made of rock. David determined that they must be fairly close to the surface.

The figure speaking was a large, balding man with a trench coat and trilby on, glowering at them from under a large, neanderthalic brow. On each of his gargantuan fists was a thick, metallic gauntlet. He stomped forward, and David instinctively clenched his hand, leading to a large blade protruding from the back of his hand.

"See anyone else?" Destiny mumbled.

"None, I'm not sure whether or not to be worried." David retorted. "Set his mittens alight and we'll be out of here."

"Consider it done." Destiny smiled, raising her hand and pointing it at the right fist.

However, just as the hulking figure started to notice a sensation of burning, he smiled.

"Aren't you an interesting one?" He laughed, raising the gauntlet, which was now starting to steam. "Take her. The Entity will be interested in examining those powers."

That was when the others appeared. Three tall figures with reptilian skin, which may once have been black but now was greyed, materialised around them.

"Endermen." Destiny spat.

One of them immediately swiped his claws at David, who ducked under the talons, countering their onslaught with a jab to the gut from his bladed fist. However, just as the point began to touch skin, the figure vanished, and David felt a large foot kick him in the back.

A glance to the side showed Destiny backpedalling while dodging identical swipes from two of them.

He rolled with the impact and stood up facing his assailant. He raised his fist and a bolt of green energy burst forth from it, half blinding David. The arching and writhing ball flew towards his assailant, who vanished, leaving the ethereal projectile to slam into the wall just a few feet before him and explode, throwing all of them aside.

David was knocked totally out of his wits by this, leaving Destiny horrified as she tried to deal with her two attackers.

Growing tired of the melee, she raised her hand to the face of the tallest of her attackers whilst running towards David, calling out to him as she did so. The creature fell in anguish as its scales began to melt like wax from a candle. He fell to the floor, cursing the witch who did this to him in a tongue she couldn't comprehend. Then, before its fellow could react her she began to open the Wings and felt herself lifting from the ground. However, quickly a taloned hand had hold of her foot, keeping her from ascending. Then from above, David's assailant fell on top of her, bringing her to ground.

David, now sitting up, saw Destiny being dragged to the ground by the two thugs, head spinning. Then, without warning, as they touched the ground, they vanished into thin air. Where there had once been a mass of three people, there was no nothing.

David rose, uttering garbled insults and swaying feebly on his legs, hearing dulled. He turned to look for some creature other than the writhing soul on the floor to kill, when the gauntleted fist of the giant brought itself to his stomach. David sputtered and buckled as the blow negated his cuirass of leather, before rolling over and just lying.

"Take this one to an isolated cell. Don't want him damaging the other prisoners. If you can, get that bloody thing off. He might blow himself up trying to escape." The giant called out in a theatrical manner. "Welcome to Nexus." He grinned.

From the shadows dozens of other creatures emerged, encircling David. Then he felt a lurch, and he passed out.


	16. Chapter 8: Not alone

The room was large and spacious, although the dark-haired man didn't seem to have realised it in the darkness. In fact, there were several beds around the room, all four-posted and with some fairly expensive-looking drapes around them. Said beds were raised up by a few steps, with a curving path through the room, on which one could normally see a heavy dining table.

The curtains were drawn, that was intentional, and the large green creature had placed shrouds over the lamps as best he could, dulling their strange, unchanging glow slightly. And the creature sat in the shadows, cross-legged fur bristling, blue eyes peering across his flattened nose at the new arrival.

" _We knew they'd send someone in! Thank Notch! Perhaps it's someone interesting! Someone I could actually sustain a conversation with! A conversation that_ _ **doesn't**_ _descend into threats of violence against whomsoever you've determined to be responsible for our present situation!"_ A genderless, somewhat inhuman, and definitely teasing voice echoed in the large creature's mind.

He glared down at the large, blue sword laid across his knees and whispered absentmindedly, "Shut up Kir, now's not the time".

The intruder had been sitting there in the room, squinting into the darkness a while, seeming to pick out the lamps in a vague manner. He then heard Tyron's murmuring, looked into his corner, presumably saw his luminous blue eyes and began tugging at the door only to find it tightly sealed. He cursed, pulled back and started glaring intently at the door. He starting whispering some inaudible words as he, sadly for him only figuratively, dug holes into the heavy wood with his eyes. Finding this to be failing, he became increasing frustrated, thrusting his hands in the direction of the lock and saying these words at increasing volume. There was about a minute of this before he kicked the door, cursed walked away from the creature that bested him and sat down against it.

"Well, come on out." He called, gesturing tensely with his right hand. "I'm warning you though, I'm really rather cross right now, and cross people taste rubbish."


	17. Chapter 9: Friendly Strangers

Fristad heard a sound coming from behind a tree somewhere behind him. He looked around and found that there were voices coming from behind a tree some dozen metres away. He could tell that there were two people, a male and a female. They were growing closer, but they hadn't dropped their voices enough to convince him that they knew he was there. They had probably heard him scream and followed him.

The voices drew closer. Fristad made out enough words to figure out that they were talking about someone named Ozen. Fristad ran as quickly as he dared while trying to be quiet behind a tree. As soon as he got behind it, he poked his head out from behind it, and saw two people coming out from behind some tall grass. One, the man, wielded an enchanted diamond sword and wore an entire set of diamond armour. All enchanted. Fristad pulled back his head a bit. The man had tanned skin and brown hair barely visible under his helmet. The other one, the woman, also wore diamond armour and wielded a similar sword. Her skin was lighter and her red hair much longer; it reached about halfway down her back over her chestplate. Fristad quickly decided that he didn't want to mess with these people.

"We've looked all over the place. Do you think they left?" The man asked the woman.

"Maybe. But we'll keep looking a while longer. What if they're hurt? You heard that scream." The woman replied.

Fristad furrowed his brow. _They're clearly worried_ , he thought, _but what if they don't think I was the one in danger? What if they think I was the cause of the scream?_

"True." The man didn't say anything else, however he may have if he hadn't been interrupted by the woman, who suddenly stopped. The man looked around, readying his sword. Fristad took a step back. Unfortunately, he stepped on a small branch and snapped it. Both the strangers turned and looked at the tree he was behind. They circled around it on opposite sides and saw him. Fristad now saw their faces. The man had purple eyes, while the woman had blue ones. Both of them smiled.

"Oh, you're not hurt." The woman said, relieved.

"Is there anyone else here?" The man asked. "How long have you been here?"

"I... I just got here." Fristad replied. He sighed with relief. _Thank Notch_ , he thought. _I've had enough threats on my life in the course of a single day_.

"Do you have any supplies?" The man asked, noting his lack of weaponry and armour as good as theirs. Fristad only had iron armour and an axe made from the same material.

Fristad shrugged. "Nothing more than I have on me. Just this torch here in my sheath," he pointed to his sheath, "this axe, and the armor that I'm wearing."

"Why didn't you pack more supplies?" The man asked. "If you don't have anything, you'll die. Didn't you know that?"

"Anyway," The woman said, "I'm Jennifer. This is Steve."

"I'm Fristad." He turned to face Steve. "Listen, this is all rather sudden for me. I didn't exactly ask to be sent to this faraway place. If I did, I would have come more prepared. As it now stands, I don't even know where I am."

"Don't worry," The man, Steve, replied. "We've survived worse. Now, I'll get you some materials." He reached into his pocket and withdrew a black chest about one cubic metre in volume.

Fristad blinked his eyes. _Did I really just see that happen? The man just pulled a meter-high chest out of a pocket in his pants..._

Steve dropped the chest onto the ground, opened it up and withdrew several times the size of the chest in logs. Steve dropped about sixty metres in length of logs about a metre thick in front of Fristad.

"Woah, woah! Take it easy!" Fristad jumped back as the logs landed with a thud. "That's... uh... really kind of you, but I have no idea how I'm going to carry all that stuff."

"Um..." Steve replied, confused, "Don't you have an unexplainable, enormous void in your pocket from which you can easily get materials you've dropped into it?"

"So.. you're telling me this pile of wood came from an enormous void in your pocket? Am I getting that right?"

"Well, of course it did! And don't the materials stack strangely so that you can carry 2,304 cubic metres of 35 different materials, but you can't carry a cubic metre each of 36 different materials? Man, you're weird."

Fristad's brows furrowed in confusion. "2,304... 35... what? And what do you mean by 'stacking'?"

"Where are you from? Do they make pockets differently there?" Steve asked, figuratively wading in puzzlement. He may have chosen to literally wade in puzzlement, but puzzlement took hours to wash out of his clothes.

"I'm from Veridale of the Farlands. And, yes, apparently we do make pockets differently there. We also wear our hats upside down from the way you do, because our hats do this weird thing where they spontaneously combust for a few seconds, but only on one side!"

"You have hats that spontaneously combust there? Your people must be really strange..."

Fristad rolled his eyes. "Never mind; nobody wears hats anymore anyway."

"Um... so, do you still want the materials?"

"Look, I really appreciate you trying to give me this stuff, but I'm not sure how you expect me to carry it all. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with so many logs..."

"Craft with them, of course! Or place them! What else do you do with them? They're logs!"

"Look, I already told you I don't have an enormous void in my pocket like you do, and even if I did, I have no use for flimsy wooden tools."

"Then you can still place them, of course!"

"Now, why would I want to do that?"

"To have logs in front of you! Or under you! Or beside you! Or above you! It's not like a floating log above you is going to fall on you!"

"Anyway," Jennifer interrupted, "We should be figuring things out now. We need to know why we're here, who got us here, how we're here, when we can get back and how."

"We were sent here by some guy who I assume wanted to kill us." Steve said. "He appeared out of nowhere after I took these out of a chest." Steve held up the crystals. "I got these when Herobrine was trying to kill us. Deodate, a Paragon, made them, I think. I've never really gotten a chance to ask him about them, as he is dead."

"Wait, slow down... so, you're telling me that Herobrine was trying to kill you? The same Herobrine with white, glowing eyes, who commands an army of undead?" Fristad asked, his eyes squinting with incredulity. "And you're telling me your name is Steve? Stephen Persson? The same Steve that stole fire from the Aether and gave it to humanity? The same Steve that fought Herobrine on top of the Cardinal Mountain?"

"Um... yes, Herobrine tried to kill me; yes, glowing-eyed Herobrine; yes, undead army, as well as a bunch of non-undead monsters, but no, I didn't fight Herobrine on Cardinal Mountain. And no, I'm Steve Brine. I don't even know what the Aether is, and I've never stolen fire before. Actually, Herobrine was my father."

"Now, if we want to survive," Jennifer interrupted before Steve could explain further or Fristad could ask any questions, though not before he managed to somehow get twice as puzzled as before, which may very well have been a new record between him and Steve, "We'll want food, water, shelter and fire. We have no idea how long we'll be here and we'll prepare for the worst."

"Good idea." Steve answered, and put all the wood back in his chest, pulled a full-sized, purplish, shiny, diamond pickaxe from his pocket and slashed at the blackened chest, ripping it from the ground, and then dropped it in his pocket. He then dropped the pickaxe back and didn't even look as he did so. He then looked at Jennifer and Fristad and said, "So, we sleep in the cave again?" Jennifer nodded. Steve didn't wait for a response from Fristad before he quickly climbed up a tree and a second later came back down and began to walk away from Jennifer and Fristad. Jennifer followed Steve.

 _Everything is happening so fast..._ Fristad thought. _I can't make up my mind whether this man is telling a white lie, or if he is completely crazy. Either way, he can't be the same Steve that I know from legend, and I find it hard to believe that he is the son of Herobrine. He is a miner, at the very least. Perhaps that explains how he was able to store all those logs in a chest in his pocket. Still, why would this Steve claim to be the son of Herobrine, and then claim that Herobrine was trying to kill him? And what do the crystals mean to this Steve?_

Fristad, after a few seconds of confusion, quickly followed the strangers, as he saw no better way of staying alive out here. If there was a shelter, he was going to get to it.


	18. Chapter 10: Tell him I hate him

"I'm warning you though, I'm really rather cross right now, and cross people taste rubbish"

The...thing in front of me came out of the shadows, and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Emerald green fur, and it towered above me; I had no doubts that it would actually eat me given the opportunity.

"I'm sure they do." He glared at me crossly. "As such, I'll wait until you're in better spirits. Welcome to our prison until then."

The creature finished, falling silent as I observed my surroundings. Several four poster beds, although only one looked used, as well as a purple tinted light emanating from the bedside of each one.

He stiffly shuffled over to the curtains and yanked on a rope, illuminating the room blindly. I raised both hands to protect my eyes, which had become quite accustomed to darkness. I noticed the large sword at his side, which glimmered intently. There was something about it that almost felt as if it were looking at you, but I quickly put that thought out of my head.

"What do you see?" He posed it more as a statement than a question, but still expected an answer.

"My imminent death," I shot back, not willing to play along with his games. I felt like the contempt in my statement would not be lost on him.

"Very funny." He growled, smiling dryly. "But the correct answer is a very steep drop down to some rather sharp rocks. Also, extra points for a large fortress which doesn't seem at all right. The design is off, especially on the landscape. Too smooth, not enough edges. It could just be a trick of the light, but this isn't possible. None of this is possible, should all be metric cubes down there."

"Not everything is cube shaped. Or at least not where I hail from. I would speak of that, but I'm in shock from the rude awakening I experienced at the hands of those Endlings back there. Unless you haven't heard of those, either, in which case you should know that they're rather fickle, " I finished, wondering if he'd pick out my litote.

"Endling? Pretty name for an Enderman. So, they took you too. There's a start. Perhaps they didn't kill as many as they said." He seemed to drop into ponderousness at this.

"It's not just them. Just before they took me, there was one other. He's known as the Silhouette."

"Never heard of him." He bluntly stated, with an air of contempt. "You didn't see a translucent little git, calls himself Freak?"

"I don't believe I had the pleasure."

"Yes, he hasn't been about this last week or so. You will see him though. When you do, tell him I hate him." He elaborated with equal bluntness.

"How long have you been here?" I asked him, changing the topic slightly in the hope of learning a bit more about the situation.

"About a month at this point. I went into a cave with Kir, just wanted to help some kid. Brother went missing. Then we were attacked by the aforementioned creature. He knocked me out and we ended up here. He's been… playing games with me ever since, except the last week strangely enough."

"I see. So they're all in cahoots with each other. A few things don't add up though. Who is Kir? And more importantly, who are you? You bear no resemblance to any creature I have ever observed, and one could say I'm well travelled."

This seemed to anger him, and he turned to me, advancing proudly and furiously. "One would be quite incorrect in that assumption. I am Tyron Dragoknight, guardian of the Dragons, slayer of Herobrine and saviour of this damned world! You'd do well to know those to whom you owe your life."

"Well, Herobrine still lives. Your name has never been uttered in any corner of the world in which I have set foot. And unless I'm much mistaken, there are no dragons either. But nor do I think you are lying to me. Calm down, and think this through, because this situation makes sense to neither of us."

Defeat fell across his face, and he didn't seem to hear most of my rebuttal. "He's still alive. Freak was right. All my work meant nothing! All of it! Pointless!" He flipped the nearest table. "Lupi dead! Seth crippled! All irrelevant!" He fell to his knees, slamming the sword into the ground.

"The Herobrine I know and the Herobrine you say you've killed...describe your Herobrine to me," I inquired of him, as I played a hunch.

"Tall, thin, blue shirt. White eyes. Controls the creatures of the night." Tyron responded through gritted teeth, seeming to catch on slightly.

"That is the creature we are all warned against, but in reality, he is much different. For too long, we fought a war that was not worth fighting, and at the end of it Herobrine emerged victorious. It was not worth the lives we lost, but the true criminal was not Herobrine."

"Tell me what your's looks like, he is evidently alien to me."

"A huge presence, with a beard as brown as chestnut, who wears his omnipotent obsidian shell. One would not be wise to attempt to confront him in battle, but he does not cause the trouble everyone previously attributed him to."

"Perhaps I was too quick to judge. It is possible that there is more than one of them. I'm sorry." His eyes were still rooted to the floor, but he was on his feet again.

"I forgive you, Tyron Dragoknight. It is easy to become rattled by the fate that has befallen us both. Maybe we would do well to assemble what we know of this situation and attempt to understand it?"

"You and Kir are right. I've wallowed in misery too long. Let's figure this out." Tyron put on a look of optimistic pride.

I opened my mouth to begin explaining the circumstances around my capture to Tyron, but before I could respond, I heard clattering outside the door of the room.

"Looks like we'll have to wait on that, Tyron. It seems we are in for yet another surprise," finished I, as gesturing to the door.

Light flooded the room, and I reeled back as the Endlings came forward.


	19. Chapter 11: Endlings

The diamond-shelled stranger turned to Fire, smiling and with loose body language. This was weird; most people were somewhat scared by his appearance, thinking him to be an Enderman on steroids.

"Hail Endling." Evidently this man didn't mind Endermen.

At least, Fire assumed this was what "Endling" meant. Although the use of the word "hail" and the fact that he sounded slightly Irish suggested that he was likely an NPC. This was definitely one of the Admin's creations. Trying to build some sort of fantasy world and this was a prototype NPC. He was probably fairly simple at this point. Not like the people of Rockhaven and beyond. Perhaps a few stock phrases and actions. Beyond that he would be completely thick.

"Hello... person." Fire grinned, relieved that this was all so simple, loosening his grip on the dagger.

The figure approached Fire, still grinning. He stopped just a few steps before him in his placid manner. Then, just as Fire was about to test the limits of his AI, he struck.

From his scabbard flew his sword, swatting aside the dagger. It landed in the dust beside Fire and before he could react the blade was at his throat, he was on the ground and there was a boot planted on his left wrist. Fire could probably have killed him then and there, but he was honestly too startled.

"As commandant of the 10th Legion of the Herobrinian Army, I, Kay Mandy, am placing you under arrest Endling." His tone was now harsh and aggressive.

"Under what charges?" Fire exclaimed despite himself.

"None really." He responded, actually somewhat confused. "I'm contractually obligated to arrest you. Your people have on multiple occasions declared their intent to wipe out our own after all. Believe it or not we'd like to stop you from killing us off."

"What are you talking about! I'm not an 'Endling' as you call it!"

"That's just what an Endling would say."

"That is incredibly flawed reasoning."

He deliberated for a mere moment before grinning and saying, "I am now convinced." He removed the boot from Fire's arm and removed his blade from Fire's throat before offering him a hand.

"What was all that about?" Fire shouted incredulously.

"I am convinced you're not an Endling of any kind."

"Well..." Fire had never been more confused. "That's wonderful but how do you come to that conclusion?"

"Several things. Firstly, you're travelling alone. Endlings don't do that usually but you could be a straggler, scout or a rogue. Secondly, you are talking to me. Endlings bloody loath humans and would sooner slit their own throats than speak to them. Believe me, they're near impossible to interrogate." He smirked a little. "Thirdly, you had ample opportunity to try and kill me. Like I said, Endlings generally kill humans on sight. Fourthly you look different. Usually the jaws are bigger and they don't have scales so much as burnt and hardened plates of skin. You also didn't react to the name of Herobrine. Lastly," He brushed Fire's face with his exposed finger. "I don't burn upon touching you. That's a big one."

Suddenly it dawned on Fire that this man was no NPC. No NPC could be this insufferable. Was he in another world after all? Then again, how could he know he was the only player in this world? Nonetheless, there was something about this man that told Fire that he wasn't just a really obnoxious roleplayer.

"My name is Kay," He said calmly but somewhat dryly, evidently still having some vested interest in Fire. "Same as I shouted earlier. And you are?"

Fire was hesitant for a moment and then said, "Fire. Say, how long have you been here?"

The figure thought for a moment. "An hour or two at best." He then turned and pointed to a cracked and uncharacteristically frail Nether Portal that had not yet been lit. "I arrived through that. And no it doesn't mean I'm from the Nether. It was blue when I got into it."

It then collapsed in on itself, as fate's a comedian.

"Well bugger," Kay said. "I suppose we'd best get to work on a camp shouldn't we?"

"What's telling you I've not got a place near here that I could return to?"

"A friend; I have quite a lot of them it seems," He turned back to Fire. "I don't imagine you do, not here anyway?"

Fire was unsure whether to be offended or impressed, he turned and saw the smoke.

"Why don't we go over there? Obviously some sort of town across the desert."

Kay shook his head knowingly and said. "We're waiting on one other person. We should expect them in the next few days."

"Who are they?" Fire questioned half-scathingly, half genuinely curious.

"No clue. My friends didn't say!" He ran off laughing.

Fire shook his head. He prayed that their other companion wasn't this irksome, and that they were actually coming. There was something off about this Kay, and his irritation factor was only part of it. There was an impression that he had had a few screws loosened where they shouldn't, as if he could break at any moment. Fire hated uncertainty, and this man wasn't just uncertain himself, and he didn't just spread uncertainty to those around him; he was proud of it!


	20. Chapter 12: Not a Nether Portal

Warnado examined his surroundings; he appeared to be in some sort of desert. That was obviously no Nether portal. Scattered across the sandy terrain were dead bushes and cacti. There was no water in sight.

Warnado shook his head. He had no idea where he was, and he didn't have any of his belongings with him. He sighed. "What a drag."

Warnado walked through the desert, looking for any sign of life, civilization, anything. The heat bared down upon him, and he was afraid of getting dehydrated. After a while, he came across a desert temple. Warnado shrugged. "Might as well."

He poked his head into the dark pyramid of sandstone. The sunlight filtered into the structure through a hole in the top, and cast ghastly shadows across the walls. Warnado cautiously stepped inside, wary of any monsters that might appear hiding in the shadows. He walked over to where the stained clay blocks lined the floor. "Pickaxe..." he muttered. He walked back outside, and continued on his way.

Eventually, Warnado came across a jungle. Warnado looked up at the lofty trees. He wasn't very fond of them, because they were so big. Either way, he needed wood, and this was the only source he could find so far. Warnado snapped his fingers.

Nothing.

Irritated, Warnado snapped again. Still nothing. "Stupid energy axe..." Warnado muttered to himself. Rolling his eyes, Warnado resorted to punching the tree. Instead of a breaking block, all Warnado got was a painful crack.

"Son of a-" Warnado shouted, gripping his fist. "The heck was that?!" He glared up at the tree. He disliked them even more.

A glint caught Warnado's eye. Turning his head, he set his gaze upon a small oasis, with a lake and a waterfall. Shrugging, Warnado headed towards it. He drank from the pool, and once his thirst was quenched, his senses were sharper. Warnado looked around, and noticed a group of footprints.

Someone had been here before...


	21. Chapter 13: Not a good first impression

Fristad watched in fascination as Steve and Jennifer dug away at the walls of the cave, seemingly in perfect unison. Fristad couldn't help but feel rather useless to assist, given the unnatural speed at which the two adventurers worked. Their diamond pickaxes tore away at the stone in huge chunks as if burrowing into sand. The expanding walls of the once-modest hole became smooth and rectangular.

Steve swiftly scooped a pile of fallen stone into his arms. He shoved them into his pocket with little regard for their massive size, and they seemingly disappeared as they fell into it.

Then, the two adventurers began to hack away at the floor around Fristad with the same haste with which they had flattened the walls. Steve pulled out the Ender chest from his pocket and planted it near the mouth of the cave. He opened it and lifted out a pile of meter-high stone bricks with one hand. He tossed them easily and Jennifer caught them several meters away. The two of them began laying down the stacks of stone bricks in opposite directions. Fristad quickly had to step out of the way as the two of them converged to the center of the newly-constructed room.

"Hey Fristad, catch!" Steve called out.

Fristad was startled to notice the diamond pickaxe hurtling towards him from Steve's outstretched hand. He caught the handle ungracefully by its edge, nearly dropping his new enchanted diamond sword as he struggled to hold both tools in his hands at once.

"Could you help me dig out a mineshaft?" Steve asked. "I was thinking we could mine some coal, iron and maybe some diamonds if we're lucky, so you have better armor to wear. Meanwhile, Jennifer could scout the area and look for food. Sound good, Jen?"

"I was thinking the same thing," responded Jennifer as she finished placing furnaces along the newly torchlit walls.

Fristad replaced the axe in his sheath with his new diamond sword, and placed the axe on top of a nearby furnace. He held the pickaxe in both hands and turned it over, inspecting it. "I've never used a pickaxe before, but I can try my best."

"You've never used a pickaxe before?" Steve asked, surprised. "How'd you get the iron to craft your armour and axe?"

"Well, usually I buy iron for my tools from the miners in Veridale. Not everyone is a miner where I come from. I also usually wear leather armor made from the cows I raise on the ranch back at home, not iron armor like this. I got this armor from... another miner." Fristad nervously paused for a moment before uttering those last two words. He chose his words carefully, so he wouldn't accidentally reveal that he stole the armor from the site of the miner Brittany's death. _That would not make a good first impression on these people_ , Fristad thought.

"Well, I suppose you're right," Steve said, smiling, "some people have to be majors rather than minors."

"I suppose, Fristad," replied Jennifer, rolling her eyes at Steve, "that is how it works in most towns, but we're used to living outside of those. We live in a mansion in a clearing in a forest. We haven't been to a town in quite a while... not since-"

"You should get going," Steve interrupted abruptly. "We'll start working on the mineshaft soon. Be back before dark."

And with those words, Jennifer nodded and left with enchanted bow in hand. Her stride was swift and steady despite her being encased in diamond armor from head to toe, which Fristad imagined was quite heavy.

 _How odd_ , Fristad thought. _When I first encountered these two people, it seemed like Jennifer was the serious one who would impatiently cut off Steve, but now it seems as if their roles have reversed. What is also odd is that these people cut each other off at the most inconvenient moments, just when the conversation is about to get interesting. First, Jennifer cut Steve off after Steve insisted logs could float in the air, and then she cut him off again when Steve mentioned that Herobrine was his father. Now, Steve just cut Jennifer off after she tried to explain why the two of them live alone in the wilderness._

Fristad walked over to the indentation Steve was digging into the wall and lifted his pickaxe above his shoulder, in preparation for his first swing.

 _I'm not the only one hiding something, am I?_ he thought. All these unanswered questions were beginning to make him nervous.

The honed diamond edge of Fristad's pick plunged into the wall, bursting out fragments of stone and dust at a speed that Fristad thought impossible. The power of this miner's tool filled him with awe, and for a while he forgot about the other, third being in that room, a being which wanted so badly to control him.


	22. Chapter 14: Lesser Being

Warnado skipped another rock across the pond, watching its path until its inevitable sinking. Shaking his head, Warnado looked around the oasis again. He needed to be home. His world was already crumbling, and he wasn't going to be around to see it.

Warnado glanced up at the jungle trees that towered overhead, which were letting in the faintest bit of sunlight through their leaves. From what Warnado could tell, it would be night soon. If this world played by the same rules, then the monsters would come out soon...

Warnado could use the gauntlet. The mages had saved his mother's power for a reason, even if it was unstable. Even if he couldn't use his own magic here, Warnado's gauntlet could easily chop down one of these trees. But he had sworn he would never use it. If items had personalities, this one would be insane.

Just like him.

Warnado shook his head, letting the haunting memory fade back to the dark recesses of his mind. Finally he stood up; maybe he'd find a set of ruins with old materials that he could use to make a shelter. He could also try to follow the footprints, and see if their makers were friendly. There were only two sets, and they were fresh, which most likely meant that the area had just been discovered. Warnado had no idea how he'd fight the two off if they turned out to be hostile, but he decided to follow the tracks anyway.

After walking through the dense foliage of the jungle for a while without anything interesting happening, Warnado heard noises through the dense fog. The world had made the shift from day to night. Stopping suddenly, he frowned. He didn't have a weapon.

 _Whoosh._

Although he didn't have a weapon, Warnado could still use hand-to-hand if any problems arose. He remembered that one time when he had uppercutted a chicken. Stupid chicken.

"Look, I don't know where I am. I don't have a weapon, and I don't want any trouble. So, how about we just pretend that you didn't just teleport right behind me, and we can part ways without any problems arising. Agreed?"

 _Hmm...it seems you don't know. You being here is already starting to cause problems._

The voice was feminine, and filled Warnado's head, making it sound as if someone was talking to him telepathically. Warnado frowned, then turned around. He only focused on the Enderman's body, knowing fully well not to look at its face as to agitate it, and noticed it was different from the other Enderpeople he knew. The creature seemed to be wearing obsidian armor, with a purple gem in the middle, right below where the creature's neck was. Spikes jutted out from the creature's shoulders, and it was carrying a black sword that had veins of purple energy running through it.

 _Who are you?_ The voice continued. _Why are you here?_

"I was wondering the same thing. Do you know why I'm here?"

The Enderwoman sighed. _Possibly, but you're not supposed to be here. Are there others?_

"You're the only other living creature I've met since I got here. Did you get sucked through a wormhole too? We could be pals! What's your name?"

 _Lesser beings such as yourself normally refer to me as the Ender._

"Come on, that name's so clichéd. Your nickname game is-wait, 'lesser beings'?"

 _Yes, "lesser being". As in I hold more power over you. After all, you were dragged to this land not of your own accord, correct? What's your name?_

Warnado hesitated. He knew better than to trust this Enderwoman with his real name. "Jeb?"

 _Liar._

"Helix."

 _Perfect._

"But if you want this thing to work out, you will refer to me as 'Lord Helix'. Any lesser being would do the same."

The Ender growled. _You're a cocky one, aren't you? Daring to use my words against me?_

"Yes. After all, you haven't shown any remarkable powers so far. If you had, I would surely join you in your obvious quest of world domination. It's not like I have anything better to do."

The Ender was obviously deep in thought, because she didn't answer for a while. Eventually, she shifted her arm to hold her sword in a ready position. _I'll show you true power, "Lord Helix"..._

She swung her sword towards Warnado, who ducked underneath the blade, narrowly avoiding its razor-sharp edges. Warnado couldn't run, since the Ender could obviously teleport, so he saw no other options other than to pull out his gauntlet. He clenched his hands into fists. The Ender stared, transfixed by the gauntlet, obviously drawn to its power.

Warnado looked at his hand. "You're drawn to its power? It was my mom's. She was a powerful mage, though not the most mentally stable. Now, I'd walk away before I find out what this thing does."

The Ender shook her head, breaking the hold the Gauntlet had over her. _I'll be back for you, Helix…_

"Okay, nice meeting you. We should do it again sometime. I know a fantastic place where we can get tacos."

The Ender ignored his statement and teleported away, grumbling about something. Warnado shrugged and continued on, carefully following the footprints embedded in the mud. Eventually he came upon a hastily-built shack. Seeing lights inside and hearing faint voices, he walked up to the door and knocked.


	23. Chapter 15: Hunting

Jennifer looked up at the sun as she crouched from her temporary perch on a tree branch. Judging from the sun's position, which was well above the horizon but still low in the sky, she estimated that the time was 8:30 AM.

Jennifer scanned the treetops. Lush, dark green trees clung to the hills like a coat of fur. In the distance, the last of the fog could be seen hiding in the shadows between cliffsides. As she turned her head, she noticed a shining glint flash from some trees just above the shadows. The leaves of these trees appeared grey. Ice, perhaps?

Jennifer climbed down from the branch. Knowledge of the terrain would be helpful, but she knew now was not the time for sightseeing. Steve and Jennifer's food supply wasn't going to replenish itself, after all.

She pulled out an enchanted bow and arrow from her pocket, drew the arrow loosely against the string, and resumed walking. After a few hundred meters, she suddenly stopped.

Jennifer's eyelids perked up. A faint rustle had just echoed through the trees ahead, barely within her hearing range. She crouched down and reached into her pocket, augmenting her hand with another arrow, and slid the two arrows against the bow. She tiptoed forward, her legs sprawling outward to accommodate the growing downward slope of the ground. Her eyes stared ahead at her targets.

Two deer were traveling slowly along a path at the bottom of the hill. Their forms were erect, but their gait was steady and relaxed, as if they were enjoying the morning weather, blissfully unaware that they were being hunted.

Jennifer couldn't help but smile with amusement. They looked like no animal that she had seen before. She marveled at how their long, thin legs could hold up their stocky brown bodies. Even stranger still were the horns sprouting like tree branches from either side of their heads. That, along with their stubby tails and spoon-shaped ears, made them undoubtedly the silliest-looking mammal that Jennifer had ever seen.

Then, Jennifer's attention turned back to the arrows in her hand. She cocked one of them against the string of the bow and let it go. The arrow sliced through the air and pierced one deer's neck. It fell onto its knees. The second one sprang into a run, leaving the second flying arrow to lodge harmlessly in the ground. Jennifer wasn't going to let it get away. She let loose a third arrow, which struck the running deer between the shoulders. It shrieked but kept running. A fourth arrow pierced its neck, and it crashed headfirst into the ground.

Jennifer sighed and put her bow away. _Whatever these animals were, they sure could run fast,_ she thought to herself. She jogged down the hill until she reached the first one that she shot. She waited a moment. Sure enough, the body remained.

 _How am I supposed to collect the meat from it?_ Jennifer wondered. She recalled when she and Steve were fighting the skeletons and the creeper. After the creeper died, rather than disappear in a puff of smoke leaving gunpowder behind, the gunpowder instead burst forth from the Creeper's stomach. _I've never seen an animal like this before. Maybe it doesn't drop anything, or maybe I have to..._

Jennifer grimaced. She could already tell this was about to get messy. She pulled out her diamond sword and thrust the blade into the abdomen of the deer. Blood spattered.


	24. Chapter 16: Always make an entrance

The Ender had little patience for contradictions, and the presence of this human-ish creature was the largest contradiction she'd encountered throughout this entire affair. The Entity had promised that they wouldn't let anything in until they explicitly wanted it - evidently this wasn't the case. He was losing control and things were slipping in under his radar, otherwise he wanted this bizarre kid for some reason.

She found herself bursting into his office after materialising just outside, dramatically casting the doors aside. The room was dimly lit and the candles which usually kept it alight were slowly ceasing to breathe.

"Hello?" She called.

The door slammed shut and the curtains seemingly drew themselves. She raised her claws, ready to disembowel anything that assailed her.

She slowly turned around in a circle, ready to vanish at a moment's notice. Then she saw him, Freak, sitting at the foot of the bed. He gave a lax two-fingered salute from the temple and grinned.

"Hello m'lady." He stood up, swaying slightly, as if a little drunk or at least unfamiliar on his legs.

"Always make an entrance Freak." Ender rolled her eyes.

"Well, you know me." Freak smirked. Ender poured out two shots of whiskey and handed him one. "You know me very well indeed."

The two raised a mutual toast.

"To our glorious leader." Freak oozed.

"To the hope that he doesn't make any more cockups." Ender scolded, before downing her drink.

Freak was about to follow suit but hesitated at this. "What do you mean?"

"He's let someone through. Some little funny-looking tosspot who wouldn't cooperate. He's on the loose currently. We had a fight and then I came back here."

Freak groaned. "Oh lord, you didn't kill it did you?"

"No." Ender laughed. "The Entity would end me for that. You know how he likes his specimens. I came back here to check whether he was interested. Where is he by the way?"

She poured herself another shot, ignoring the fact that Freak still hadn't touched his. In all honesty it wouldn't matter much that she was drinking faster, her species barely registered alcohol, she just enjoyed the taste.

Freak suddenly became interested in examining his fingernails, then realised he didn't have any, wondered why the hell he thought he had any, and then proceeded to answer the question.

"He's out in the danger zone, 'The Shift' as it's calling it. Some religious establishment came through from an outer world thanks to a random energy surge in one of the nodes. He wants to check it out for his 'research.'"

"So, in other words he wants more pretty pictures to add to his art collection, and a few living beings to examine and interrogate."

"You're forgetting the oddities he's always on the lookout for."

Ender snorted. "How could I? Anyway, I'd best head out and find him."

Both stood up.

Freak looked contemplative for a moment, before resolving, "Nah, you don't need to. You take a break, you've been out on patrols all morning. I'll go out and tell him, and I'll keep an eye on this creature."

"You don't even know what he looks like." Ender cocked an eyebrow.

"Honestly, if he's as weird-looking as you suggested, I shouldn't have a hard time finding him. Southern Jungles right?"

"You are indeed correct. Anyway, good day to you sir." Ender said formally, bowing in an exaggerated fashion.

"And to you m'lady." He grinned back, before the two of them jointly vanished.


	25. Chapter 17: Purple Light

David jerked back into consciousness suddenly, gasping and looking around. The walls of the corridor were lined with large grey slabs, many of which were bathed in a subtle purple light from various pedestals. David tried to crane his head to see into one of the pedestals, and figure out what was within them, but then realised he was being dragged along underarm.

Two of the hulking Endermen held him, with talons ready to tear into his arteries at the slightest twitch. He looked about. His arms were chained together, but his gauntlet was still on. They evidently couldn't remove it. That was good. Destiny was nowhere to be seen. That wasn't at all good. He felt panic began to fill him.

Then the grim procession stopped suddenly, David felt one of his captors let his arm drop and heard him walk over to the door. He saw an opportunity and whipped his gauntletted arm around, aiming straight at the creature's heart.

"Let me go." David growled.

The creature just smiled in its condescending, reptilian manner.

David willed the gauntlet to shoot it, and it did. However, the blast was thin and sputtering, and seemed to splash onto the shell of the creature feebly before evaporating.

Before he could figure out what was going on, the Enderman punched him in the jaw, rattling his teeth, and threw him into a dark, cramped cell "lit" only by one of those purple lamps.

The door slammed loudly and David was on his feet seconds later, willing the gauntlet to blow the door aside. But it was the same, again and again. The same feeble burst emerged each time and dissipated without leaving so much as a scorch-mark on the door. Then, eventually, his confusion became too great to continue, and he fell back against the lamp. He wiped the blood from his mouth, and he began to panic. Where was Destiny? What were they doing to her? What would they to him? Where were they? And a million other questions rattled through his mind in no particular order, the only point of solidarity being the little purple glow above him.


	26. Chapter 18: A Terrible Liar

_This is ridiculous,_ Fristad thought to himself. _Steve digs so much faster than me that he has to dig in front of me to keep this tunnel straight._

In the time that Fristad would dig a cubic meter of stone, Steve would dig four, and the disparity in the two men's progress continued to grow as their carved stairwell extended deeper into the ground. Long gone were the sounds of birds and the morning wind. The only sounds left were the echoes of footsteps and the clanging of blades as they clawed through the solid rock. In the few moments when both men were still, all that remained was silent heartbeat of the body of the earth.

For Steve, digging a mine like this was routine, even peaceful. While there was not same rhythmic crumble and crack of stone chunks that Steve was used to, there was still an inescapable rhythm in each swing of his pick, each layer of stone carved out, each vein of coal and iron harvested. It was a welcome break from fighting hordes of monsters, that's for sure.

Not so for Fristad. To him, smashing through all these rocks was at once grueling and boring. Every swing felt awkward; not only did his heavy, oversized iron armor rattle with each sudden movement, but he repeatedly had to readjust his grip on his diamond pick in a futile attempt to rid himself of the unequal strain on his arms. Both his torchlight-strained eyes and restless mind yearned for sunlight and open space. _At the very least,_ Fristad thought, _it would be nice to have some other sound in this pit other than shattering rock. I hope Steve's up for conversation._

"So Steve, you're a miner, right?"

"What do you mean?" Steve replied, continuing to mine as he did so.

"Well, for starters, you are wearing a full set of diamond armor. Getting enough diamonds to craft that armor would cost a small fortune if you didn't mine most of the diamonds yourself."

"That can be true. Where I'm from people generally aren't willing to part with our diamonds so easily. Villagers are the worst, though, by far. I've seen 'em charge an arm and a leg for a diamond. Quite literally, an arm _and_ a leg. Some people might give an arm _or_ a leg for a diamond, but both is just outrageous. Anyway, I did mine most of the diamonds for this armor myself, although Jennifer mined quite a few, as well."

"You make it sound so easy. We've been underground for just an hour and my arms are already sore."

"That makes sense, considering you've never gone mining before," Steve remarked.

"Then again…" Fristad continued, "this pickaxe shaft feels a bit wide for my hands. If it's alright for you, I would like to try to craft a pickaxe for myself. Maybe it will fit my hands better."

"What do you mean?" asked Steve. "All diamond pickaxes look more or less the same to me. Which kind of wood you use can make a difference, but for the most part they're identical."

"Not even the pickaxes crafted by other people?"

"No. Does crafting work differently where you come from?"

"I guess so. Where I come from, crafted tools and armor tailor themselves to the person who crafted them. So, if I craft my own sword, the handle fits just right in my hands, and if I craft my own armor, it will fit my height and build."

"That's interesting. In that case, you definitely should craft your own tools and armor."

"Thanks."

Steve paused as he spotted another vein of iron to his left. He dug into it with his pickaxe until a patch of darkness was revealed in the wall. As if on queue, the sound of rattling bones echoed from inside.

"Nether's fire..." Fristad swore, "I just realized where we're going."

"We have been underground all this time. Did it ever cross your mind that we would find a cave at some point?"

"I guess it just didn't sink in."

Steve widened the hole by chipping away the edges with his pick. He leaned his head into the hole, pulled out his diamond sword from the depths of his pocket, and jumped inside.

The sound of crushed bones was heard before a thump echoed in the darkness. A flickering yellow light appeared in the hole.

"All clear!" Steve's voice echoed.

After a moment's hesitation, Fristad gathered his courage and climbed into the hole. His iron armor rattled when his feet landed on the floor.

Steve placed torches at regular intervals as he walked deeper into the cave. As each torch magically burst into flame, the darkness ahead of him retreated a little more from the stone walls. He stopped at the edge of a cliff. A lake of lava glowed at the bottom. Many passageways littered the far walls. Flowing water echoed.

"This cave looks fantastic!" Steve said. "We'll find diamonds down here no problem."

"That would be swell, wouldn't it? Let's hope the monsters are polite and don't - Aaaaah!"

Steve heard the sound of falling gravel. He turned and saw Fristad's arm slipping from the edge of the cliff. Steve grabbed a bucket of water from his pocket and jumped off the cliff the moment he placed the water at the cliff's edge. The lava became covered in steam. He fell with the waterfall towards the growing patch of obsidian below. Just as his feet landed upon the water-soaked obsidian, he heard the sound of a teleporting enderman.

Steve looked around frantically for Fristad and the enderman. "Fristad, are you alright?" he called.

"I'm fine," replied a voice behind him.

Steve turned around and saw Fristad in his iron armor, standing upon solid stone.

Steve sighed in relief. "That was a close one. You should be more careful. Steve looked around the cave room, making sure there were no monsters in sight. "Also, there might be an enderman nearby. Keep your guard up."

Fristad also sighed with relief, not just because he survived a close encounter with lava, but because Steve didn't suspect that Fristad had just teleported...

Steve looked inquisitively at Fristad for a moment. "Also, how did you get away from the lava so quickly?"

...or so he thought.

"I don't know…" Fristad replied, flustered, "I guess it just… happened."

Steve thought about the enderman teleporting sound that occurred around the time that he landed on the obsidian. His mouth slowly turned into a small grin. "You can _teleport_ , can't you?"

"Umm… no?"

"You have magical wizarding powers, don't you?" Steve's eyes were now almost alarmingly large.

"Okay, fine! You got me: I can teleport. But only in life-threatening sit-"

"What else?" Steve asked insistently.

"That's it! That is the full extent of my powers, I swear to Notch."

"If you say so…" Steve replied slowly, figuring that "Notch" was some ruler or otherwise important person where Fristad had come from. He walked onward into the cave, placing torches as he went.

 _Why do I have to be such a terrible liar?_ Fristad thought to himself.

Inside of him, another mind simmered in anger at the sudden turn of events.

"How could you have been so careless?" the voice echoed. "You have sparked the suspicion of yet another miner... and forced me to expend yet more of my precious energy on your stupidity! Consider yourself lucky he does not want to kill you yet. It helps little that the monsters in this cave already do."


	27. Chapter 19: A Man of Two Worlds

Yeah, sorry about the Hiatus, we're back. Exams got in the way, but now everything's over for the majority of us and we have a good stretch of nothing going forwards.

Regular updates returning. - K

* * *

"So Fire, tell me about yourself. What is your strange world of "NPCs" and "players" and whatnot. It sounds like quite a lark." I questioned as calmly as possible, although I couldn't deny there was a slight condescension.

Across the fire from me stood the strange being. About three metres tall, larger than even Herobrine or Glibby, he stood. His skin was black like an Endling, but instead of hard and charred it was smooth, scaled and metallic. His white jacket too broke the image of the average man of the End. They were too proud to wear mortal garbs, only wearing any armour in battle and even then it was reserved for their generals.

He unsettled me, and this was the reason for my condescension. However I also couldn't help but be fascinated by him. Fire was unlike any other creature I'd spoken to. He acted like he was normal, but many of his emotions felt forced, as if he were manufacturing them as a tool. There was also the fact that he was vastly stronger than I. He could tear out massive chunks of the earth and place them back down, and create things from little.

At that very moment we sat in a little hovel of his making. We'd taken a cave near the oasis, and he'd created for us a door which should keep out the creatures of the night.

Fire then began to speak. "Forgive me if I use some over-modern terms. My world may be somewhat further developed than your own." I grimaced, feeling myself quite a knowledgeable person about modern technology. "I am a man of two worlds." I cocked an eyebrow, interests now piqued. "The first world, I believe to be far beyond that of your own. In it I am just a random citizen, with above average wealth admittedly but very insignificant in the grand scheme of things. We have many creations that you'll find wonderous. Horseless carriages; firearms; flight; communication through small devices and of course, the computer and internet."

I cut him off in this pause, wanting to correct a few things. "Actually, we do have a highly elaborate train system, our airships sail through the sky like the finest of ships and while mobile communication is still in its infancy it should be workable within twenty years. Also, Firearms?" I scoffed. "Bloody irrelevant. They can't pierce enchanted armour and it's going to be a long time before they can. Although I cannot account for the last two, please continue."

Fire looked at me suspiciously. "Seems I've underestimated your world a bit, sorry. The computer and internet are simple to explain. The computer is a small device that can contain information and make it into a usable interface-"

"Like a library on a small scale." I broke in, genuinely fascinated.

"Yes, you catch on quickly." Fire seemed surprised. "The internet links them all together."

"Like an ender chest." Said I, never having actually seen one but understanding the concept very well.

"I suppose that's also correct. Basically... it's hard to explain. Within this world, what I _believe_ , just taking a guess here, is the equivalent of your world, is a game. A virtual sandbox." I was straining to understand, but nodded to him to continue. "Within the game, a number of people have gotten together to create... a book which you can slip inside and interact with? Is that a decent analogy?"

"Fascinating."

"And time in-game passes much slower. I've spent over five thousand years in there, but barely a grain of that time has passed in the real world."

I was bloody speechless. I yearned to understand more. To learn of this strange man and his fictional world made material. He told me of how he had stolen the Books of Knowledge and of his sister the sorceress. Of how he was gifted by his gods to test both his and their own strength, making him damn near perfect. But while he talked about the world he came from or _what_ he was he didn't say a single word about _who_ he was.

From my point of view, he was like some sort of demi-mod. A being of inhuman power and some unfathomable knowledge... And as much as this enthralled me, I was equally terrified by it. This man, this being... He was still human. He was imperfect, and something told me that there was something inside him, still chained and well guarded but only waiting for the right moment to break out. I prayed to Herobrine that I didn't have to be there to see it.


	28. Chapter 20: New Arrival

As I staggered back, my mind filled with various obscenities to yell at our captors. More important than the various crass insults were all of our unanswered questions.

However, fate had dictated that they would remain unanswered. Before either Tyron or myself could get a word in, the door had shut, and at our feet lay another captive.

Collapsed on the floor, she wore brown trousers with a small, empty holster, a grey tank top, and had deep brown hair tied up in a ponytail. I turned to Tyron, who shared my mutual disappointment and appeared potentially even more irked, looking as if he were about to rip open the door. We had gained nothing, unless this girl knew more about our prison than we did.

"Didn't you say you wanted a meal earlier Tyron? The Divines seem to have rewarded you," I quipped.

"Yes...if she doesn't have any useful information, it might be about time."

That was when there was a low groan, and she began to twitch. She rolled onto her back and began to slowly blink open, muttering someone's name. I thought I heard "David", and was probably correct. She fumbled about on the floor for something or someone to hold onto, but found only bitingly cold stone on the ground. The young woman's eyes then shot open as Tyron came into view, and she rolled up, looking around for some object to defend herself with. I reached forwards, but she leapt back, finding a glass vase on a table behind her. She promptly shattered this on the table and waved the shattered remains before us, slowly backing up.

"Answers, now!" She spat. "Where's David, where am I, who are you? In that order."

"Shut up Kir," Tyron spat to this unseen figure. I was growing increasingly concerned by this.

The girl turned her head to me, "You, Kir or whatever your name is. Those three questions. Now!"

"Just calm yourself," I replied, more defeated than frustrated at this point.

"I don't think that answered any of my questions. Now, answer or I slam this in your face!" She jerked her arm threateningly, looking me up and down for a weapon.

Much to her surprise, rather than the weapon she had expected to find, I ignited a small flame in the palm of my hand. Sadly, it didn't quite have the impact I intended, being pitiful and flickering in stature.

"Sorry, it's usually more impressive than that. However, I don't have the answers to either of your first two questions, and I'm only partly sure of the answer to the third, at this stage. Please put the shard down, and I'll try to explain to you as best I can. Otherwise, I may have to give you some first-degree burns."

My joke seemed to calm her down a bit, and she lowers the shard.

"So," She swallowed. "We're in the same boat then?"

"I'm afraid so. All three of us are unfortunate prisoners. Of what, we do not fully understand, but we have several theories. As for who we are: He's Tyron, and I'm Astro. We've not been acquainted for more than about a half hour, though, so there's no backstory for you."

"Astro," Tyron rumbled distractedly. "Should have asked that. Rude of me."

"Destiny," She said grimly, brushing her fringe aside slightly and placing the shattered remains of the glass on the table. "They caught me around some portals. Me and my… friend. That's uh… David. I don't know whether they caught him, or, killed him… Yeah."

"Well, if you're looking for answers, I'm afraid it's slim pickings. The creatures that keep us here are called Endlings, and as you saw earlier, I'm not capable of using my magic properly. Meanwhile, Tyron's had several confrontations with a being called Freak. And no, we don't know very much about it either."

Tyron then began to grumble inanely. "Translucent shit. Going to kill him the second I see him."

"So, you're Astro," She asked quizzically, seemingly starting to calm down a little. "Who's Kir?"

"Yes," Tyron said unnecessarily, seeming to wake up from his grumbling. "Oh, yes. Kir is…" He gestured to the sword at his side, "That."

"Kir is a sword?" She dryly responded.

From slightly behind Tyron, I gave Destiny a look that said to just go with it.

Tyron then pulled the scabbard from his side, looked squarely at it and smiled sadly at the sword.

"You can talk to them now, go ahead," Tyron coaxed.

" _My gosh, I thought I'd never speak to anyone but Tyron!"_

"The sword is talking. In my head." Destiny ruminated. "Wasn't expecting that this morning, but hey I was pretty dead then so, this is one of the more normal things to happen today."

I mentally lamented the breach of my final private space. At least there was somebody to help me through my avid existential crises.

"Well," Destiny said, clapping her hands together and blinking furiously. "What do we know about the situation? Is there a window?"

She then looked over and saw the barred windows along the wall, and then realised this was a rather stupid question. Scratching her neck in embarrassment she went over to the window and looked out.

"Pretty high up." She said absentmindedly. "So, looks like we're stuck up here. Best get to know each other."

She grimaced and sat down on the nearest four-poster.

"Anyone care to start?"

I got the feeling that Tyron was not going to volunteer before me, so I spoke up.

"I hail from Arcadia, on the Horizon. It's a place; people just aren't very good at naming things where I come from. I'll keep it short, but I have the innate ability to use magic where most of my friends do not. I've seen many things over the course of my life, and, honestly, I don't particularly want to talk about it. All you need to know is that I want to get out of here as much as you do, and that I have more patience than I appear to."

Destiny nodded, as if understanding, yet I knew that she couldn't so easily. Nevertheless, I was finished.

"And you Tyron?"

Tyron looked at her and glared. "You fir-"

That was when Kir eagerly bounced back into our heads. Once again, I cringed at the loss of my inner sanctity.

" _Well, if you must ask - we're from Minecraftia! Don't really have a home. We just sort of wander. Tyron's an anomaly who's friends with dragons. I'm a bluestone vein. We killed Herobrine together."_ It was plainly gushing over past glories, and Tyron just looked at the floor, growing increasingly discontent.

"That's enough Kir," He growled as the sword mentioned the name "Lupi".

"And you, Destiny?" The inside of my head had never felt so peaceful.

"Obligatory alcoholic joke." She dryly quipped. "I'm Destiny. I just kind of woke up a few weeks, maybe months, ago. Born from nothing and all that. Anyone else in that situation? Just kind of born fully grown? Potential amnesia?" Tyron raised a hand sadly. "Glad I'm not alone. So, I met this guy called David - we clicked. Stayed with a villager for a while, then he died. We were harassed by this guy called Martin - Herobrine's obnoxious apprentice. Then, eventually, he kidnapped me, held me hostage. Tried to kill me, extract the 'golden diamond' from my essence. Needed it to invade somewhere or something. David almost died trying to save me. I almost died. And then the Notch-damn second we had an opportunity to get out of that life - to have a damned easy stretch - we were pulled right back in! Our ' _past-selves_ ' decided they wanted us to investigate this weird portal they found. 'Hey! Want to enter a perilous situation we know nothing about?! Hop on in!'" She glared off into the corner of the ceiling. "They attacked us. Three Endermen and some weird gorilla-looking man attacked us. They took me and I don't know what happened to David. He could be captured - or being tortured - or dead!"

She dropped forwards, rubbing her temples furiously.

"Damn it!" She shouted, but instantly regretted it. "Sorry, that was rude."

I looked across at Tyron, who scowled impassively but nodded as if understanding. Kir seemed to "Hrm" in a concerned manner.

Then, because things always work best in threes, the door opened in a slightly less dramatic manner than the two previous times. However, this time it looked like something would advance the plot in a meaningful way. Between the two Endlings from before was a well-dressed middle-aged man with a large bald patch. He smiled coldly.

"The Entity would like to speak with you."


	29. Chapter 21: Resurfacing

The next few hours of spelunking were somewhat less eventful. Steve and Fristad mined and lit the cave as they went, every once in a while killing a pack of monsters which would attempt to ambush them from the darkness.

None of the monsters were a match for Steve with his fully-enchanted diamond gear. Fristad, on the other hand, appeared to be holding his own, much to Steve's relief. It seemed that, aside from their rather gruesome way of dying, the underground monsters of this world behaved the same as the monsters in Steve's world.

A while later, as Steve was in the middle of mining an iron vein, he heard a muffled voice emanate from his pocket. Steve put his pickaxe away and pulled out his radio.

"Steve, can you hear me?" the static-riddled voice spoke from the radio, this time louder now that it had been removed from Steve's pocket. "This is Jennifer."

Steve put the radio up to his face. "Okay, so nobody's stolen the radio," Steve replied sarcastically. "This of course is Steve."

"Glad to hear you're alive, Steve," replied Jennifer, her partial attempt at sarcasm cut short by the impatience in her voice. "Listen: I found a small group of soldiers a few kilometers away from our hole in the mountain. They were talking about the crystals, and they are waiting to meet up with someone. I am almost certain that 'someone' is the same muscled man that tried to steal the crystals from us earlier. But it gets worse: the person they are waiting for has a compass-like device which they claim can detect crystals. They also mentioned some mysterious substance called 'booze,' although I am not sure if that is relevant."

"Oh yea, 'booze,' I know what _that_ is…" Fristad remarked jokingly.

"Well, regardless of whatever this 'booze' thing is," Steve said, "that is bad news. Did the soldiers say anything about when the man would come back?"

"No, they didn't. They only said that he was late."

"I'm not surprised." Steve grinned. "We put up quite a fight. Anything else new?"

"Unless you want to hear about the gruesome way in which I had to collect meat from the animals in this world, I'm pretty sure that sums it up."

"As long as there's food in the furnace." Steve replied.

"Alright, then. Take care."

"Same."

Steve slid the radio back into his pocket, took out his pickaxe, and resumed mining out the iron vein.

The existence of the soldiers worried Steve. The man that attacked them earlier was hardly a threat on his own, but if the man really were capable of tracking down crystals, he could easily track down Steve, and lead an army straight towards him. And if that army were anything like that man, they were bound to have evil intentions.


	30. Chapter 22: Demon

Fire was the first to stop talking. They'd been engrossed in an almost disturbingly engaging conversation about how indoor plumbing worked in Fire's "real" world, when they heard a knock on the door.

"Unusual for someone to knock at this time..." Fire said, eyes darting towards the door, wishing he'd installed windows.

"Not too unusual. I'm certainly used to people calling at such hours." Kay chuckled to himself.

"Very interesting." Fire remarked.

"Yes, from my experience they're usually either trying to kill you, or to convince you to kill someone else." Kay laughed in an attempt at being roguish. At the same time he reached for his weapon, Fire did the same.

Kay was the one to walk up to the door. He reached for the knob of the door, halting before turning it, taking this moment to nod to Fire. He drew his sword and then threw open the door, ready to stab anything in his path.

Standing outside the door was a hooded figure with their face shrouded in shadow. On their hand was a gauntlet humming with otherworldly whispers.

"AH!" Kay shouted. "Demon!"

"Correction." The cloaked figure shouted. "Quarter-demon on my father's side. By the way, I am Warnado, and I LOVE TACOS!"

He threw his arms wide and seemed to grin expectantly. What he didn't expect was to be struck in the face and thrown to the ground by some pale bugger with a sword. Nor did he expect to have the claws from Fire's left hand and the Wither dagger in his right hovering mere centimetres in front of his face.

"What the heck are you doing?"

"As commandant of the 10th Legion of the Herobrinian Army, I, Kay Mandy, am placing you under arrest Endling... I mean, quarter-demon, kind of human being thing!"

The hooded figure (who claimed his name to be Warnado) turned to Fire and asked, "Does he do this a lot?"

"At least from what I've seen, yes." Fire answered, "Now, tell us who you are!"

"Well, if you're so keen..." Warnado began sarcastically.

"Lose the tone!" Fire snapped.

"Nah, keep it. It will make this much more interesting." Kay excused.

"My name is Warnado. As said before, I have an interest in Tacos. My father was a half-demon. Had a rather unhappy childhood. I also spend my time looking after a bunch of idiotic villagers who couldn't defend themselves from a cow... Rather literally actually... That was a weird day. Anyway, whilst defending said scrubs I was accidentally sucked through a portal and now I'm here. I was also attacked by a random Enderwoman with a really uncreative name."

"Is that all?" Kay prodded.

"I guess that is as plausible as anything, looking at our own stories..." Fire remarked.

"Oh trust me mate, I haven't even told you the implausible stuff yet." Kay laughed dryly.

"So, care to tell me where we are?" Warnado asked, becoming increasingly aware that neither Fire, nor Kay were natives of this region.

"No clue." Kay said, straightening up and lifting his blade away from Warnado's throat. He looked sideways at Fire. "You can move the claws."

"Oh," Fire hadn't even realised he was still holding them in the face of Warnado, before retracting them, somewhat embarrassed.

"For the record," Warnado started, suddenly starting to lose breath. "That's rather cool; the whole claw thing. But honestly," He turned to Kay, starting to pant rather heavily. "You seriously have no idea where we are?"

"Not a clue." Kay responded with a sarcastic cheeriness, the novelty of which had already worn off on Fire, "We're all lost here. Welcome to the club fellow confused wanderer!"

Warnado backed up, arms tensing up, as he bent over slightly. He raised his hands to his temples. "So, I could be anywhere right now?"

"Of course," Kay responded, pretending to feign innocence as to the annoyance he was causing Warnado. "You could be in another flipping dimension right now. That's certainly what happened to me and Fire. Isn't that right Fire?"

Fire only hummed "Mhm."

Warnado leant back a moment, as if about to fall over, before leaning back again and grabbing Kay's shoulders. He then proceeded to let out a whispered scream of "Agh!" for the next ten seconds.

"Indeed." Kay responded. "I believe you now understand our predicament?"

"Yes." Warnado responded.

Fire said: "I guess we shouldn't be standing around outside for too much longer, you are already enough unwanted attention for a night..."

Even Kay didn't have any remarks about that statement, he turned around on the spot and went back into the hovel through the wide open door. Once everybody was inside Fire lifted his backpack, which he had deposited inside previously, onto his lap.

"We should eat something, luckily I carry plenty of dried meat with me." He announced.

He unhooked one of the smaller bags from his backpack and opened it up by pulling on a string. He then fished out three pieces of dark red meat, he handed Warnado and Kay a piece and kept one for himself.

"It's not the best food you can have but it doesn't spoil and still tastes good." He said and then added with a smirk: "If you like salt."

Fire took a big bite of his own piece, the meat was tough but nothing Fire's sharp teeth couldn't handle. The taste was predominantly salty but the salt didn't cover the taste of the meat completely.

Kay looked at the piece of meat as if it were something otherworldly but then decided that it should not be poisoned and took a bite. It took quite some chewing as he lacked Fire's exceptionally sharp teeth.

Warnado had similar problems with his piece but still gave a thumbs up, unable to speak because of the food in his mouth and the abnormal amount of salt in it.

Kay chewed the meat contemplatively. "I honestly can't complain about it. Better than my mate Astro's cooking... or to a lesser extent the food in Vechs' prison camps."

After that they just sat there and silently chewed the food, after they were done Fire handed them a bottle that seemed to contain substantially more water than its size would tell.

After the somewhat cheerful meal the atmosphere slowly changed to aggressively trying to stay awake, as nobody trusted anyone to stand guard this night. After some time it was clear that Fire was the definite winner in the staying awake contest, he was still wide awake while Kay and Warnado were wrestling with their tiredness.

Kay remarked: "Well, Fire. If you want to kill us, now is the moment, I can't even lift this blade anymore." He demonstratively failed to get his sword off the ground.

Fire just sighed and replied: "I give you my word that I won't kill you tonight… whatever that's worth to you."

Kay was about to say something as Warnado interrupted, audibly struggling to form a straight sentence: "If you are… have no int...ention to murderize us… don't do it."

Fire suppressed a smirk and said: "Well, you'll need to sleep now. If I don't murderize you this night because you stay up, everything else in this world will tomorrow. A tired warrior might as well not be a warrior at all."

Kay said: "He's... got point." Now too struggling with his words.

Then Kay proceeded by letting himself fall over sideways, Warnado seemed to like the idea and did the same. Within a matter of seconds they both were asleep. Fire stood up and took his ghast bone bow from his back, fished a handful of arrows from his inventory and took his guard post outside the hovel.


	31. Chapter 23: Harder than Diamond

Steve had collected what Fristad estimated was about equal to a tonne, stored it in his pocket and was still walking faster than a now worn-out Fristad. Steve seemed to completely ignore physics and logic in that respect, as well as in that pertaining to the speed at which one is physically able to swing a pickaxe.

After a few hours of this, they had accumulated between them - which in this case is almost synonymous with "Steve had accumulated" - a considerable number of rough diamonds and ores. They had enough coal to smelt all of the ores and much more, so they dug out a tunnel back to the world's surface.

Suddenly, an avalanche of rocks and dust burst forth from the cliffside, smothering the nearby greenery of a dense forest of pine and oak previously untouched by man. Steve marched forth from the resulting gratuitous hole looking rather triumphant, his shoulders puffed up and his face grinning widely. As Fristad emerged from the hole a few moments later, the comparative amount of dirt blackening Fristad's face became a testament to Steve being immune even to the physics of fine dust particles.

"Wooo!" Fristad shouted cathartically. "Out of the dank and dusty mines and back into the open air! What a great feeling."

"It _is_ a great feeling," said Steve, as he turned to face Fristad. "Woah, what happened to your face?"

"Is it really that bad?" wondered Fristad, as he brushed his fingers against his face and inspected the blackness now clinging to his fingers. "By Jeb... that is a ton of coal dust."

"Whatever this 'coal' dust is, I can't imagine it weighing a tonne, let alone a tenth of a tonne," Steve argued. "I can't even imagine how a tenth of a tonne of dust could cling to your face. Then again, maybe I am interpreting your words a tonne too seriously."

"Steve, please stop," complained Fristad jokingly. "After a long and tiring day mining, the last thing I want is to hear your weight puns, especially with your current tonne of voice."

"I thought my weight puns broke up the mono-tonne-y."

After a temporary lapse in literary seriousness, the two protagonists resumed using the English language properly and walked back to their mountain-hole base, where they began to discuss their plans to fend off the future attack of a yet-unknown group of soldiers. Fristad presumably found a way to clean the coal dust from his face while no one was looking.

Jennifer finally returned to the mountain hideout when the sun was very low in the sky, perhaps less than an hour before sunset. Steve stared at a stack of redstone dust in his hand briefly before shoving it into his pocket and pulling out a stack of cobblestone to toss into the furnace.

"How were the caves?" Jennifer asked.

"Oh hey Jen, I didn't see you there!" began Steve, more privy to introductions. "We pulled a good haul today. Fristad was a bit of an . . elementary miner," Steve said with just a bit less of a pause than a full ellipsis' worth, but more than a comma's. "The monsters weren't too much trouble, though. I would say our trip was mostly uneventful, if it were not for a certain . . . shall we say . . . 'event.'"

"What sort of event?" asked Jennifer, genuinely concerned. Her reaction was uptight and unusually serious, as if some urgent matter were bothering her.

Steve, however, did not quite notice since his eyes were now pressed against Fristad, who stood sheepishly at the other side of the room. He was half-invested in assembling the sticks and diamonds upon a crafting table, while simultaneously trying to avert his gaze from the two curious Minecrafters now in his midst.

"It was quite an event, _wasn't_ it, Fristad?" began Steve cryptically. "You falling from a gravel cliff, nearly falling into lava, and then _vwoop_ ing away like a teleporting enderman?"

"Isn't ' _vwoop_ ' the sound an enderman makes when it talks?" corrected Fristad.

"Eh, not quite. Kind of a mix between hissing and . . . cackling? Anyway, vwoop or no vwoop, all that matters is that you teleported, revealing yourself to be the wizarding wizard or maging mage or . . . warlocking- magicking magicker that you really are."

"I am hardly a wizard, or mage, or magicker-whatever-anything! I thought I already told you that I couldn't control it... " Fristad corrected himself again. "...my powers."

He was just one consonant away from revealing the existence of that one forbidden being which was the source of that strange power. Even at that moment, the being was whispering silent poems into the back of his mind, of diamonds and ender pearls uniting to form a single, black mass...

"I thought you said you could control it in life-threatening situations," corrected Steve.

"It's not that simple," argued Fristad.

"Guys, we can talk about this later," said Jennifer, urgency in her voice. "The same man we saw earlier was with the soldiers. They just teleported away about half an hour ago. I ran to get back here."

"Do you know when they're coming back?" asked Steve, his own voice becoming appropriately urgent to fit the situation.

"I don't know. All I heard was that they were going to speak with their boss. They could come back tomorrow, or even tonight. We have to be ready for anything."

"Agreed. Are you still working on that pickaxe, Fristad?"

"Yea."

"Then stop working on the pickaxe and make yourself some diamond armour," ordered Steve, as he placed down his ender chest and extracted twenty-one diamonds. He walked over to Fristad and poured the diamonds on top of a furnace next to Fristad's crafting table. "And try to make it quickly. You're going to have a hard time defending yourself if you don't wear some decent armor."

"Umm..." Fristad said awkwardly.

"What's the matter? Did you forget how to craft armour?"

"No, it's not that. It's just that... in my world, the crafting recipe for diamond armor is a bit... different."

Fristad was lying, of course. The crafting recipe for diamond armor in Fristad's world was not that much different from the recipe in Steve's world. Steve, of course, did not need to know this. After all, why should honesty get in the way of the pursuit of true greatness?

"How is it different?" asked Steve.

"It also needs ender pearls," Fristad responded nervously. "Seven, I think."

"In addition to twenty-four diamonds?" Steve asked incredulously. "Isn't that a bit expensive?"

"The recipe does call for fewer diamonds, I think," said Fristad, still nervous.

"Still, that _is_ a lot of ender pearls. I would prefer to craft the armor myself so we could save the ender pearls for an emergency."

"But it's stronger than diamond!" Fristad blurted out.

"I don't have time for this," Steve said, getting increasingly annoyed. "Let me craft the armor."

Steve stepped toward the crafting table. Fristad put his hand out to stop Steve.

"Don't bother," Fristad said. "I can craft the armor myself."

Steve squinted his eyes, at once confused that Fristad could craft his diamond armor without ender pearls, and annoyed at how Fristad seemed to oppose everything Steve just said.

Fristad moved a diamond from the top of the furnace to the crafting table, brushed the sticks aside, and arranged the two pairs of diamonds into columns. He moved them subtly with his wrists, his brow furrowed in concentration. The diamonds slid from underneath his hands, and stretched and warped into a pair of diamond boots.

Fristad did the same with three more groups of diamonds before the armor was complete. He removed his iron armor and replaced it with this newly-crafted diamond armor. It fit snugly, to his relief. The tingling sensation radiating from the new armor was stronger than from anything he had crafted before. It made him feel oddly powerful.

"I'm sorry I wasted your time," Fristad said, his composure returning.


	32. Chapter 24: Nothing Serious

Another internally tumultuous night eventually resulted in my waking with little memory of where I was. Initially I thought I might have awoken in the same cave as Aaron and the others and that we would proceed as planned, but then I noticed my strange bedfellows.

To the right was the weird, creepy, hooded kid with an unsettlingly disfigured arm.

 _"_ _Warnado wasn't it? Yeah, that's the one."_

Then, remembering the day more rapidly by the second, I looked over and saw the other one, Fire. Still as ridiculously large as ever, standing a full foot taller than the Blind Watcher himself, the black-scaled colossus guarded the door. He turned his head and then sat up from his rocky stool, guard seeming to droop, but not wholly.

"Sleep well?" he asked.

"As well as I normally do." I responded instinctively, but then realised my company and added, "That is to say, soundly but tiringly."

Fire gave me a slightly odd look, and then we heard a yawn from behind us. Warnado was now awake, rubbing unseen features with his hands.

"Morning," he said, evidently remembering the situation much better than I did.

He rose, stretched his legs a bit, and then looked deeper into the cave, almost as if expecting there to be more down there, but only finding a jagged wall.

Half disappointed, he turned to us and chirply asked, "What're we having for breakfast?"

"Beef again, still salted." Fire responded quickly. "Sorry about that, we'll grab some water on the way out."

"You don't need to apologise. As I said last night, I've eaten worse." I added laxly as I could.

After a silent and uncomfortable breakfast we found ourselves outside, all arming ourselves.

"So, where exactly are we going to?" Warnado asked, looking between us as he fastened his boots.

"Village, not too far from here." I responded, cutting Fire off. "Someone will presumably be waiting for us there."

"How do you know this?" Fire began, skeptically. "I thought you were new here as well?"

"Well Fire, it's simple," I smiled in a condescending manner. "The magical teleporting old person appeared to me and told me you were coming. He then told me to go to the village and burn anything in sight."

Fire blinked twice but otherwise responded in no way.

"I'm joking." I dryly continued.

"Dang it," Warnado said, frowning slightly. "I like burning things."

"Only on one of those clauses, you decide which."

"So, where is this promised village?" Fire pressed on.

"Off in the jungle from what I can guess," I squinted through the early morning sun towards the treeline, finding a pathway of stone emerging on the other side of a small hillock. "Over there."

"Well, isn't this a well-planned expedition?" Fire dryly growled.

I smiled at this, "I suppose that means you'd like to lead the way?"

"I certainly wouldn't trust you to do it, Captain Scott."

The reference was somewhat lost on me but it didn't stop me from frowning slightly.

"Then scout ahead for us. We'll be following close behind." I waved my arms grandiosely in the direction of the path.

Little more was said for the next twenty-odd minutes as we walked towards and subsequently trudged along the path. Fire proved the hardiest of us. He wasn't essentially faster than us, but his stride had an unbroken quality we couldn't quite measure up to. It became quite tiring after a short while, and ceased to attempt to catch him, instead resolving to become acquainted with Warnado.

"Hey, Warnado isn't it?" I began, then sought clarification. "War-nah-do? War-nay-do?"

"Helix, or Lord Helix, preferably."

"Well then, m'lord, I just wanted to apologise for my... irritability as of late. Particularly last night. Shouldn't have spoken as I did." I offered, genuinely feeling I'd swaggered too close to the sun there.

He cocked his head at me. "I'd forgive you if I could remember what you're talking about."

I contemplated going into a lengthy explanation, but then remembered how well that had gone with town guards on prior nights of revelry.

"That's for the best. So, tell me about yourself." I prodded, giving as winning a smile as I could muster.

Sadly this was lost on the hooded creature, "You aren't getting anything until you tell _me_ more about _you._ "

I laughed, "I like you. Well, as per your request, I'll tell you about myself."

I cleared my throat and began to explain the long story of my life.

"I was born to the Matriarch of some semi-prominent Thaumic tribe twenty-odd years ago. There was some overly-elaborate ceremony involving red wine when I was about five, I failed it... somehow." I swallowed, "Mother decided this was a sign of my weakness and through an equally overly complicated series of events I ended up being adopted by The Professor." I smiled involuntarily.

"Lived with him a good few years. Great guy. Spent most of my time reading or getting into trouble with... Well, to make a long story short it didn't end happily. He ended up dead and I lived in the mountains until I was fifteen, scavenging to survive. Then a few people picked me up and I ended up in the Zine Craft. Lived there another six years, meeting a lot of my current group of friends, all great guys. Well, perhaps not Gracey... probably not Gracey - or Bokane if I think about it honestly - but I have a feeling you and Aaron would get on well."

"How so?" Warnado skeptically inquired.

"Just a hunch. Aaron's able to get along with pretty much anyone, even Bokane. Well, then again even he can't tolerate Gracey, but that comes with the territory."

"Who's that? Bokane?"

"Some ***** we've picked up along our travels. Right sourpuss; Thaumaturge though so that's not surprising. Not too uncommon of Thaums as a whole. I won't say I hate him, even dislike him, I admire him. He takes care of Mini, a little half-breed about your age: half-creeper, half-man. Anyway, you're probably not interested in my social circles.

"My story only really picks up around the age of 21, when I was targeted by corrupt administrators for... personal reasons. It was an age-old story. I mercy-kill a friend of their henchman 5 years prior, they burned down my house while I was out, I create a conspiracy to have them assassinated, they arrest me. Normal, everyday, mundane stuff. That's when Herobrine entered the story good and proper."

"Herobrine?"

I sadly didn't notice the weird, baffled and somewhat concerned look he was giving me, "Yes, wonderful man. Started giving me these trippy as hell visions of the future. Then his followers broke me out and I served as one of his top generals. Led the Tenth, his best legion... after Notch and The True Court slaughtered the 1st, the 5th _and_ the 7th. Kindest man I ever did know, Herobrine. Not Notch, never knew the guy, only ever met him once and he seemed like a right cock. Smashed a chair over his head. Same goes for Jeb and Grumm. His brother however, just to clarify, great guy."

"You mean the Herobrine who killed off an entire race and ripped an entire continent into Light-knows-where?"

I then noticed the queer look and returned it with a look of total, earth-shattering bafflement.

"No, the Herobrine who saved the True Court from the traitor Israphel and the Obsidian Families, attempted to save Notch, bested Seph, conquered half of Mojang's empire, liberated the Southern Thaumlands and then gave me this nice obsidian-plated sword and chestplate. Who are you talking about?"

Warnado continued to eye me weirdly, "I'm going to assume there's some weird dimension-hopping thing here. But you might want to avoid declaring that so proudly in future. Others might not be so understanding."

"Why's that?" I looked forward, somewhat frustrated that anyone would speak ill of such a benevolent being as Herobrine.

"Perhaps," Warnado continued. "It would be better if you knew my story."

"Go ahead," I began, somewhat apprehensive about what I was about to learn.

"Some 25 years ago, Herobrine, the man that you worship or whatever, started - and stopped - a war between the Humans and the Pigmen. He killed off the entire Pigmen race and pulled the continent that the war was happening into another dimension. At least, that's what I can gather, although it is possible that whatever twisted being put us here stole that continent from my world.

"From what I can tell, barely anyone escaped that continent, but those who did are now trapped in some sort of time-warp for...I don't know, another year or so. While the world around them changes, they remain the same."

"Jeb, I don't know what to make of that... They have to be different people. Notch did something similar to the Pigmen after the Golden Revolution. Must be an equivalent event of some sort..."

"And then you bring up Notch and Jeb. As far as I can tell, Notch is one of the people in the time warp. As for Jeb, he's the ruler of some kingdom in my world."

I gave him a dead serious look, grappling with how literal gods could be so dismissed. "Your world is so weird."

"And I haven't even started on my story."

I shook my head. "Go on, then."

Warnado sighed, evidently about to give a long speech. "My father was a half demon, and my mom was even more insane than me (and yes, I know, that's saying something). She was a battle mage, and I believe the power got to her head, because she tried to sacrifice me to Darkness. Anyways, my father killed her, and used her energy to make this..." The wizard gestured to the gauntlet on his right arm.

I nodded but said nothing.

"Anyways, the gauntlet killed him, and I was left with nothing. So I departed my home in search of friends or whatever. Eventually, I came across this village of humans who were trying to live in peace, away from where the war was, and I saved them from a bunch of cows."

"Excuse me?" I struggled not to laugh.

Warnado shrugged. "Cows are the spawn of the Nether. No one believes me. Anyways, I saved them from this cow army, and I made some...friends."

I raised my eyebrows at this. He was hiding something.

"So eventually, this group of bandits attacked the village, and slaughtered everyone...well, not everyone, there was this one girl who they took alive..." Warnado's voice faltered. He stopped for a second, then shook his head and continued. "I hunted them down, and killed them, but I could never find the girl. I sought refuge in another village, this one inhabited by a group of Paganum."

"Paganum?" I inquired.

"Strange fellows, tall heads, large noses. Known for wearing robes and making the worst trade offers known to mankind."

"Oh, you mean Testificates. Silent buggers? Often enslaved by stronger-minded creatures? Love emeralds?"

"Sure. Anyways, I lived near them for a while, but then I got dropped here. I fought some Enderwoman, found your makeshift hovel, and here we are."

"That sounds like a reasonable enough summation. I am satisfied." I said with a wry smile and mock pompous tone.

That was when I bumped into Fire's back, not having realised we'd gotten so close. He however, didn't seem to notice. Or care.

"Warnado, just a quick question. What did this Enderwoman look like?" he inquired, a slowness being placed on his words as he stared off into the skyline.

Both of us caught on immediately. My hand was on Apotyre immediately, drawing it from its scabbard with a ludicrous flourish. Warnado muttered some incomprehensible words with a curious authority to them, and in his hand appeared a heavy, glowing bow with an equally glimmering arrow already drawn.

In the tree branches, there was a figure which ranged in colour between reflected white and coal black. It was only there for a split-second, eroded by the blinding white down to a caricature of a person, like a stain on fabric, but its presence was unmissable.

There was a large, crumbling tower that had toppled over in the jungle just to the left of us. Through the gaping, shattered windows, one could see the vague silhouettes of two archers, and the tell-tale smoke of a fire. They either hadn't seen us yet, in which case, the sentries were blind, or they had no fear of us. In my opinion, both were major mistakes, but who am I to tell roadside bandits how to do their jobs? Essentially, another roadside bandit with much more experience than these amateurs. As such I grumbled in length about "incompetents" in my mind as we began to advance slowly.

Warnado fell behind the two of us, and drew back his magical arrow. Fire and I both instinctively raised our hands to tell him to stop, but then the archers within sprang from behind their posts and loosed their arrows. I dropped to the ground, vanishing amidst the shrubs. Fire merely stepped to the left and the arrow soared past into the ground. Warnado released his arrow and it pierced the first of the archer's throats. He gagged a few moments and began to stagger around, before eventually falling off some unseen ledge.

There was a concurrent roar from within the tower, and one could hear the stomping of feet as the party ran out to meet us. There were about five of them, and the Endling (or Enderman as the others called it, in my opinion applying far too much dignity to these abominations) was still unaccounted for.

Warnado planted an arrow in the shoulder of the second archer and he fell back, his arrow getting lost in the branches above him. Fire and I rushed towards the party, and I instantaneously picked out my target. The leader of the pack was evidently a man wearing a ridiculous wolf-skin cloak, with a necklace of what might've been teeth, or might've just been pretty rocks that kind of looked like teeth. Either way, he had ashen-gray hair and a thick beard, all giving to me the impression of someone who desperately wanted to be a fearsome bandit warlord.

Fire met the main crowd and crashed through their lines immediately, felling one and catching him on the shoulder with his claws. He then turned to the main group and began furiously slashing. Warnado, however, now found himself occupied with the Enderman, who he fired arrow after arrow at, none finding their mark as the creature shifted from one tree to the next.

I ran towards wolf-skin, and he took a large swing at me with a small, silver mace, which I promptly ducked under. He attempted a back-handed blow at my leg, but I caught it with Apotyre before punching him in the side of his leg. Metal slammed into his kneecap and he cried out, dropping onto the one knee before swinging once more. I stepped back, then ducked as one of the other raiders swung clumsily at my head. I stabbed backwards and found his rump. There was a groan, his sword fell from his hands, and I returned to wolf-skin.

Having recovered from the former injury, the wolf was angry. He ran at me and took another heavy swing at me. I batted the mace to the side with the flat of my blade and slammed my shoulder into him. He was staggered and fell back a few steps. Then, I commenced my assault.

I charged at him and arched my blade at him three times in rapid succession, and he struggled each time to both retreat sufficiently and match my blows. Then he tripped slightly on the root of a tree, and as he steadied himself on the trunk, I brought down Apotyre on his weapon and sent it to the ground. He started to flee into the jungle, but I kicked him in the side of the leg as he turned, toppling him. He sprang up again, much quicker than I could have anticipated and launched a punch at the bridge of my nose. I swayed to the left and threw my fist into his flank, winding him.

I straightened up and smacked him across the face, smashing his nose and sending him to the ground with a muffled thud. He tried to rise, but I whacked him again across the skull with great satisfaction. He fell on his face, groaning, and I turned him over and placed Amicus at his throat.

"You have one warning, then I get really violent. Answer all questions and you won't get hurt. Try to deceive me or evade answering and you will regret it. Understand?"

"Okay!" He raised his hands helplessly. "I've got a wife and family, please don't hurt me."

I smacked him across the face. "Don't give me that rubbish. I know your type."

"Well, not a wife so much, but-"

I whacked him again.

"Okay, I don't have anything as such, but me old ma's alive."

"Really, how long is it since you last saw her?"

He looked at me guiltily. "Six months?"

Another slap.

He weeped a little. "Four years."

"You really ought to do something about that." I looked aside and saw Fire continuing to tear apart the crowd, Warnado now sending arrows into the lot to aid him, having abandoned the flying Enderman. "Anyway, first real question. Where are we?"

"Nexus," he whimpered.

"Where is that?"

"Damned if I know."

Slapped again.

"Not wherever you're from."

I raised my hand once more, but this time he beat me to it.

"It's a world in itself, I don't know the geography too well."

"Then you're from a different world to this one?"

"Of course, we all are. Meself, the black ones, the Ape, the creepy transparent sod."

"I'd assume your leader is from here though?"

"Well of course."

I pushed Apotyre a little closer to his throat.

"I don't like impudence."

"Okay, okay!" he trembled.

"Okay, who?"

"Okay, sir!"

"Better, who is your leader?"

"Calls 'imself the Entity, crazy bugger, never liked 'im. Wouldn't have anything to do with him if I wasn't stuck here."

"How're you stuck here?" I gave him a cutting look. "I've seen your people travel before."

"Well, not us, not often anyway. We woke up here one day and he recruited us. We're not trapped so much as we are obliged to stay here."

I brought my fist down on his bloody nose once more.

"OW!" he shrieked. "Why did you do that?"

"That counts as a lie. What does he have you do?"

"Well..."

I shook him and shouted it again. "What does he have you do?!"

"Miscellaneous mercenary stuff. He has us look for trespassers, beat dissenters into submission and occasionally murder or extort someone! It's nothing serious!"

"Nothing serious my ass. I was one of you once upon a time. Anyway, last question, where's the nearest pub? Looking for a place to get absolutely smashed, and I want to know if the village up the road is worth my time." I posed this last question in the most nonchalant way possible.

He looked at me with a look of utter bafflement before breaking down laughing, nodding as he did so and gesturing back towards the road. I grinned at him too. I made it quick, just a quick twist of my arm and he was gone. I cleaned my blade on the nearby tree, sheathed it, and then set about wiping off my hands. My cuirasse was still stained with blood.

I strolled back to the other two, seeing that they'd dealt with all the bandits, and were now cleaning themselves off at a nearby stream. Strangely absent was the corpse of the Enderman.

"Oi, where'd the Endling go?" I called out indignantly.

"Ran off in the trees." Warnado grumpily replied. "Tried to follow it but then it disappeared. Pretty infuriating."

"Crying shame." I shook my head. "Anyway, had a nice chat with the leader of that group of friendly chaps."

"Find out anything useful?"

"They're led by a man called Entity, at least I assume it's a man. It's definitely a thing of some sort. None of them were native to this world. They found themselves here like us and were then hired as mercenaries."

"That all?" Fire grumbled, evidently disatisfied by these meagre pickings.

"Of course not," I responded incredulously. "I can also confirm that there's a pub in the village. Hurry up."


	33. Chapter 25: Attorney At Law

"The Entity?"

Destiny spoke first, impatience and frustration getting the better of her.

"Yeah, my employer," The balding man walked up to Destiny and clapped a hand to her shoulder, before offering said hand. "I'm Marinus Bul, attorney at law. The Entity is currently my client, so I handle business on his part."

His manner somehow managed to infuriate me within two sentences, and I considered the easiest way to snap his neck.

"What does he want with us?" I interrupted, not taken in by his manner.

"Well, come with us and we'll explain that in less hostage-y circumstances. The Entity himself will be present. We're awfully sorry about this situation. We've been having some trouble with the nature of our business. Between dimensions codes of conduct vary a fair bit, so we need to take precautions with anyone we come across."

"I'm surprised you think I'm dangerous at all - haven't you done your research on the Silhouette?" I smirk at him.

Bul seemed to cock his head slightly, impressed by the unwillingness to take ********.

"The Silhouette's a close business partner of ours. He directed us towards you personally. I assure you, there was no real threat on your life from our part."

Just his, then. It was nice to know from whom the threats were coming, rather than how to stop them.

"I'm sorry that there was conflict between us," The attorney frowned apologetically. "I assure you all, we have only benevolent intentions."

"Is that why you destroyed my home?!" Tyron broke in, towering over the attorney, who eyed him coolly.

"And you are?" He pulled a notebook from his pocket and began to flick through. "Tyron Dragonknight. Herobrine-slayer, impressive… Well, I suppose it depends which one, but. Yeah… Nope, we haven't done anything to your world. Should be perfectly not destroyed."

Tyron seemed disbelieving.

"What?" He skeptically leant in to the man's face. "Then why did that translucent **** come in every day, goading me with news of a new dead friend or family member? New news of Herobrine's resurrection and onslaught? Are you going to explain that away with your little notebook?"

Kir yelped some words of encouragement throughout all our ears.

Bul cursed and looked at the floor, deciding his next action, before looking back up at Tyron with new resolve.

"I cannot account for Freak's comings and goings." He said, with the greatest sincerity and gravity. "I don't like him either. I assure you, we'll see he's punished."

The serpent-tongued attorney shuffled backwards.

"But it's wrong of me to omit my client. If you don't mind, I'd like to escort you to the office."

 _"_ _Tyron, go. We should do it."_ The sword encouraged, and I began to realise how bizarre it was that I suddenly found myself agreeing with a deadly strip of metal.

Tyron then jerked his arm in acquiescence.

"Fine then, lead the way," I conceded, gesturing to the others to fall in step. The Endlings prompted for me to offer my hands, and I scoffed. Whatever this lawyer had said, we weren't being treated like equals.

I reluctantly gave up my hands and allowed them to shackle me. Destiny and Tyron soon followed suit, equally disturbed by the notion. Once we were shackled up, the Endlings surrounded our line, one in front and the other behind, with Marinus leading.

The corridor that surrounded us upon leaving the cell was plain, yet tastefully designed with appropriately chosen paintings lining both walls. I stopped for a second to examine one that I could have sworn was hanging in a museum in Vanillacraft, the last time I saw it. Before I could take a closer look, I was jolted forward by the Endling in front of me, but there was no mistaking its identity. Something was very wrong with this.

We rounded a corner into a large entrance hall, the same grey, cold brick lining the walls, and several artefacts on various pedestals.

"Bul, where did your 'employer' get all this stuff from?" I questioned, half angry and half curious, before it turned to full anger as I spotted a diamond encrusted chalice from my own guild.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but that's _mine,_ " I rebuke, gesturing towards the chalice. Bul only turned for a second and gave me a grin, as if to imply there would be more explained later. Everyone else, even the Endlings, looked to the small goblet and its plinth, but I was already preoccupied with other matters.

In the past, anger had always caused my magic to spark, as if it was aware of my aggressive personality. At that moment, however, it felt entirely suppressed, moreso than in either of my two cells. The only explanations that came to mind were that this 'Entity' itself was responsible for my magic being restricted, or that it was a result of some magical object. I scanned the surroundings for some indication of an object.

Just as Bul broke the silence, with a political, "Well come on, the Entity is waiting," I identified it. The room was filled with purple lamps, something I had originally paid no heed to given the tendency of 'dark overlords' to be flashy and altogether ridiculous with their decor. There was no doubt however - as soon as I recognised the magical aura surrounding them, I couldn't ignore it.

I had to let the others know, and I racked my brains for a subtle method of communication. It was unlikely that any of my own telepathy would work - I could barely even conjure a flame. Luckily, resolution arrived in the form of an annoying voice in my head.

 _"_ _Annoying voice? You're not making it very easy for me to help you,"_ said Kir directly within my head.

 _"_ _Okay, I'm sorry Kir. That was unfair of me. Did you hear all of what I was thinking?"_ I asked it.

 _"_ _Yes, I did. I'll tell Tyron and Destiny. We have to get out of here,"_ it replied, and I relaxed as I felt its mental pressure dissipate slightly.

Bul led us up a short but extravagant spiral staircase, occasionally stopping to point out some famous sculpture or painting. I saw a few that I recognised, myself, but deigned to avoid a further confrontation with Bul, at least for the time being. Soon afterwards, we found ourselves outside a large oak door.

"I must warn you. Do _not_ insult my client or his hospitality, or I fear things will go very badly for you," warned Bul. Given the situation, he was right - we wouldn't be able to put up a fight whilst the lamps persisted. He knocked on the door.

"Sir, your guests are here to see you!" said Bul enthusiastically, and the door swung open. Like the rest of the castle, the interior of the room was archaically but tastefully decorated, and the layout not unlike our 'cell.' A large table filled the main body of the central dais.

Bul quickly walked in and sat at the opposite end of the table, next to a bronze, polished suit of armour. As for our trio, we were quickly escorted to the other side of the table, our shackles were removed, and invited cordially by the Endlings to make ourselves at home. Clearly, whoever this Entity was, the fact that he could get Endlings to swallow their personal hate for anything that moved commanded a certain level of respect.

Marinus proceeded to do the introductions.

"Sir, I have brought you your guests. Astro of Arcadia, wizard and politician, Tyron Dragoknight, slayer of Herobrine, and…" Bul seemed to stretch for a name and title _"Destiny?_ Who…"

"Was once the commander of the Liberators, but that was another life," She smugly explained.

I was fairly certain this was an awful pun of some sort and offered a weary sigh.

I look around for his 'sir,' but am surprised when the suit of armour itself moves.

"Sit," It said, tone void of any inflection that would indicate any normal emotion or accent, preventing Bul's explanation. "You are welcome to."

The three of us and Bul followed suit. Tyron sat on the creature's right, while Destiny sat across from him, cutting off Bul. This forced the lawyer to sit just beside her. She looked at me with severity, and I nodded, sitting on Bul's other side.

 _"_ _Good precautions,"_ Kir redundantly affirmed. _"If things turn ugly, splash some wine over him and threaten to set him on fire."_

Trying to hide my discomfort at both the voice in my head and the fact that it was telling me to burn things, I thanked Kir, and politely asked him to leave. The sword bashfully retreated.

"We are sorry about the lack of information that we have on some of you," The suit began, holding a hand out, stiffly pointing at Destiny. "Our research is not…" It paused a second, head seeming to turn involuntarily towards the window. "...Yet complete."

It then looked to and nodded at Marinus, who politely reshuffled himself to face Destiny.

"You dropped in on us rather suddenly. Our last guest should be joining us in a… There he is!"

Bul stood up again, as the door opened again. In walked a man with a dark blue jacket over a thick leather chestplate. His hands were bound together by steel, with a heavy, black gauntlet on his right hand. His face was furious, with a heavy shadow across it. He looked like he'd been through quite an ordeal, with proud but paranoid eyes darting about the room. His eyes settled on Destiny, and his features suddenly melted.

"Destiny!" He shouted, rushing forward.

"David…" She breathed in response, rising slowly.

However, a metal hand grabbed his shoulder, stopping him. Behind him was a tall, burly figure I recognised.

"Glibby the Ape," I remarked, remembering the descriptions of friends and friends of friends.

"Astro," The ape mused contentedly. "I don't believe we've been formally introduced."

Destiny's reaction was much more active than my own, who immediately leapt up and readied to take a run at him before a grey-scaled Endling, with a face which sloped downwards on one side, appeared before her, claws to her throat. Tyron and I both rose.

 _"_ _The wine!"_ Kir shouted inaudibly but clearly.

I was about to go for the wine when the suit raised a hand.

"Wait," It insisted. "Remove his bindings, and let them embrace."

The Ape looked up at the suit, his features livid. He then recomposed himself, and removed a hand from David's shoulder, who immediately moved to stand beside Destiny's seat, shifting it back into place. The Endling reluctantly pulled away from her, ensuring to leave a slight, stinging nick of a cut on her neck. She then rushed over and embraced David deeply, smiling infectiously.

I found myself smiling involuntarily at the two's enthusiasm, and took a sip from the wine cup.

David then refused to sit, instead dutifully standing at Destiny's side; a stone faced warden. Tyron looked at me, half-snorting. I then saw the comedic extent of his devotion and smiled knowingly. David silenced both of these with a livid glance.

"Well," Marinus began, with sweeping gestures to include all of us. "Welcome to Nexus… These are not the ideal circumstances for us to meet under."

"Really?" Tyron snarled, beating David to the punch. "I think being kidnapped and psychically tortured by Freak for several weeks is quite ideal. I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Tortured?" The lawyer looked to his master and back. "I'm sorry, like I said before, we were totally unaware of this. The Entity doesn't usually condone torture. We'll be having a serious look into this."

Glibby looked to the suit, presumably The Entity.

"I told you it was unwise to give him such a free reign," He explained dismissively.

"Irrelevant," The Entity stated. "Continue, Marinus."

"Well, yes. We have brought the majority of you here for research purposes. I'm sorry, but we have to do some experiments and ask some questions. It's for medical and political purposes.

"You see, we're a business enterprise - primarily - attempting to prompt interdimensional trade and conduct scientific research that will be useful to us. We expand into your worlds to sell goods and help to prompt an ever-closer linkage between worlds. We need to investigate creatures from the worlds we enter, however, for two main purposes.

"Firstly, we want to gather information about worlds such as yours in order to make sure that we don't try to enter into serious negotiations without a good knowledge of the political and cultural situation. We don't want to make deals with one power in a serious war, which could lead to antagonism in the future.

"We also want to do some experimentation to figure out physiology, to ensure there aren't any crazy diseases that we're not immune to or that your species has. After all, we want to make sure we're not peddling poison, or receiving it for that matter. As such, we do, on occasion, have to abduct people."

"Then why on earth am I here?" I justifiably asked. "You evidently have quite a presence in my world if you're working with the Silhouette, and he should be able to provide you with all you need. Why kidnap me?"

"Well, it was a matter of convenience. We wanted to look into the various types of magic in your world, and you were the nearest available Wizard we could find. Thaumaturges are easy pickings, as are Moderators and Administrators. Wizards… considerably rarer and much harder to find. As such, we couldn't take a risk that you wouldn't accept. I was hoping that the Silhouette and his _affiliates_ wouldn't have been so _brutal_ in their obtaining of a wizard, but sadly Glibby's so-called "Grey Ones" are a little liberal in their use of force, and not known for their willingness to negotiate."

He was clever, deflecting blame. I couldn't help but respect his techniques, having admired them in other men.

"Well, assuming we cooperate, how long can we expect to be here for?" Tyron asked with suspicion.

"As is, it could be up to a year before your release," Bul uneasily started. "Wait! We do have a way to speed up the process. We just need all of you to do a couple of favours for us; political favours."

"What on earth are you talking about?" David spat. "I don't know any leaders, and we certainly aren't prominent political figures!"

Destiny nodded along cooly.

"Well," Marinus explained. "You may not have entered "politics" so to say, but you are well-known. You have just destroyed a nation if I'm not mistaken…" He pulled out a notebook and flicked through a numbered booklet. "The Sovereign was it? Freed hundreds of slaves? Killed a dictator? People will listen to you. Honestly, we owe you a favour; we tried dealing with the Sovereign some time ago and that kid leading them - Martin? - attempted to storm Nexus. We drove him back of course, but it was an unpleasant experience. We only recently attempted to reestablish a foothold there. People were certainly complimentary of you two."

The two looked at each other, suddenly uncertain as to who their enemies were.

"The rest of you are similarly prominent, either having the support of the masses or prominent figures. Mr Dragoknight, you killed Herobrine and, with the aid of the dragons and rebel Endermen, had the First overthrown and summarily executed. And, Astro, while you can't boast to having saved any worlds, you were a key associate of many involved in the Court of Righteous Protest, particularly of the General and Gaian King K-"

"I get your point," I interjected hastily. "I have the ear of some key people and might be able to help you out. It sounds reasonable enough."

"Precisely, so I take it that you'd help us?"

"Not quite," I responded nonchalantly. "I said it 'sounds' reasonable, not that it is reasonable. We'll naturally need time to talk this over as a group. And, of course, assurances will need to be made."

"Such as?" Bul inquired nervously.

"The boy stays with us from now on." Tyron entered with authority. "He doesn't go back to whatever hole you're keeping him in."

Destiny smiled gratefully at Tyron, with David recoiling in bewildered gratitude. I nodded my assent when Tyron glanced at me.

Bul looked over at The Entity for approval.

"It will be done," The Entity concluded after a moment's deliberation.

"M'lord!" Glibby entered, "You promised him to me."

"I did, now I am revoking that promise in light of new circumstances. You will be granted due compensation."

"But-"

"I grant you and your Grey Ones a great deal of freedom, but you must remember that ultimately, the Silhouette placed you under my command."

Bul smirked triumphantly at the bewildered Ape, who politely nodded and retreated to the door.

"Discuss in your own time," The Entity concluded. "We are in no hurry."

I couldn't help but feel unnerved by this, as we were all invited to stand.

About an hour later, after having been brought back to our chambres, and two Endlings having inserted a fourth bed to the room, we all sat down.

"So," David began impatiently. "What's our plan to escape?"


	34. Chapter 26: Wrong side of the bed

Jennifer was the first one to wake up the next morning. Her ears picked up the sound of a tree rustling outside. She wasn't too worried about it; she and Steve had disguised the outside entrance and sealed it with a piston door. It should have been nearly impossible to detect their hideout with the naked eye. Only the soldiers with the crystal-detecting compass would be able to find them, assuming they would be able to detect the crystals even when they were inside Steve's ender chest. Jennifer wasn't sure where the crystals 'went' when Steve put them into the ender chest yesterday. She hoped the ender chest hid the crystals, but she wouldn't bet her diamonds on it. If this world's physics could be different, so could its redstone technology.

 _What worries me the most about this world is that we have no idea what these soldiers are capable of_ , Jennifer thought to herself.

This was enough to get her to sit up in her bed. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her clock. It was 6 AM, slightly later than she expected, but she was used to those sorts of surprises when underground. She slid her clock back into her pocket and pulled out a cooked porkchop.

Fristad's eyes opened wide, as he was awoken by the smell of roasted pork wafting through the room.

Steve sat up soon after. "Good morning," he said, smiling despite his drooping eyes.

After a filling pork breakfast, the origins of which nobody tried to think about, the three set about planning what to do next.

"In summary," Jennifer began, "we don't know where we are, and there are soldiers that want our crystals but we don't know when they are coming back. We already have plenty of supplies, so there's no point in us staying here. I propose that the three of us search for a town so that we can learn more about this world."

"I agree," Steve said. He turned toward Fristad. "Ready to go on an _adventure_ , Fristad?"

"Now that I have a full suit of diamond armor, ab-so- _lute_ ly!" Fristad replied, with a burning sarcasm in his voice that was rather inappropriate for the moment.

The effect was not lost on Steve, who stared at Fristad briefly with a mix of confusion and disgust.

"You are not a morning person," Steve said.

"Then I guess we'll get going," Jennifer said, trying to move things along.

Steve and Jennifer quickly gathered the beds, torches, and pistons from the mountain-hole base and left the rest behind.

Fristad followed behind the two adventurers with a diamond sword in hand and a newly-crafted diamond pickaxe hanging from his hip. He struggled to suppress the anger of the manipulative being, trying to enjoy the moment.

 _It's not every day I get to travel with miners, some of the strongest humans known to Minecraftia,_ Fristad thought to himself, _let alone wear a full suit of diamond armor, while walking around in another dimension! It's already an adventure. Why must you interfere and make me look like the bad guy?_

"Surely you know how difficult it was to acquire the diamonds you are wearing now!" scorned the voice, known to Fristad as 'the Book.' "Opportunities like these come rarely; I won't let you ignore that. There are also other matters to address which must not be taken lightly. Miners such as Steve and Jennifer are still too powerful for us to influence. The only way we can proceed... is by mastering control over a creature more willing."


	35. Chapter 27: Jorge and the Girl

Warnado hated talking to people, and the village was full of them.

They had arrived mid-afternoon, all tired except Fire, who looked like he could run a marathon without breaking a sweat. Warnado stuffed his gauntlet into his pack, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention to the group. However, he kept his hood up, as to keep his identity hidden from any more of the warlord's minions.

Warnado glanced from side to side as the three walked through the busy streets. There were some barracks near a watchtower near the southern gate, with many guards stalking that area. Bells rang throughout the city, coming from a church in the center of town. Various shops were littered across the village, but most of the shoppers were at the town marketplace, with stands advertising food, potions, medicines, and weapons...

"Hold up," Warnado said. "Weapons? Why would a market have a stand that sells _weapons_?

"Dunno..." Fire replied, frowning.

"We should probably ask around, see what people know about this world," Kay murmured.

"I'll head to the marketplace," Warnado said. "You guys do...whatever it is you do."

Ignoring all the strange glances people threw at him, Warnado strode over to one of the stands in the marketplace, the one that advertised weapons. A burly man stood behind the wood counter, arms folded. He looked Warnado up and down, frowning.

Warnado smiled. He was intimidating already.

"Hi! Why are you selling weapons?"

The man was obviously surprised by Warnado's straightforwardness. He placed both of his hands on the table, palms down. "Who are you?"

"Santa. And you are?"

Warnado was happy to see that the man was getting more and more confused by the second. "Jorge," the man replied gruffly. "As for your question, you're not from around here, are you?"

"Tell anyone, and I'll set fire to your house!" Warnado said cheerfully.

Jorge jumped at this. "Okay, who are you really, and what the hell do you want?"

"I already told you." Warnado rolled his eyes. "Now, why don't you answer me before this gets violent?"

"These are dark times we live in. Mad times. To be without a weapon is to die. It's suicide. If you're not from here, then go back to where you came from. You're probably safer there than you are here."

"Then you know nothing of my world."

Warnado walked away, leaving Jorge utterly terrified. The next stand he came to was run by a much more cheerful lady, who was selling fruit, bread, cheese, and many other food items that looked to be forty times better than Fire's salty pieces of garbage. Warnado purchased as much as he could and stuffed it into his bag. Then he decided to ask the question.

"I'm not from around here. Why is everyone so tense?"

The smile quickly left the girl's face. She sat back into her chair, sighing. "There's...something bad going on here. We can all feel it, can't you?"

Warnado couldn't feel anything unusual in the air, seeing as there was usually tension wherever he went. But he nodded anyways, hoping to get more information.

"There's a rumor going around...but rumors never lead to much truth...about a warlord who wants to take control of this world. No one has seen him, however, but there are...creatures who claim to be his minions. I wouldn't believe it, but there is something strange going on here..."

Warnado nodded. "Thank you. I'll be on my way, now."

She smiled again, then waved him off. As Warnado made his way towards where Kay and Fire had headed, he suddenly gasped and fell to the ground. People stared as he put his head in his hands. That girl...but it couldn't be...

He looked back towards the marketplace. He had just seen a ghost.


	36. Chapter 28: Jackals

Steve, Jennifer, and Fristad followed the slope of the mountain downward. Where there were valleys, there were rivers... and where there were rivers, surely, there would be civilization. At least, that was what they hoped.

Jennifer led the way, with Steve close to her side. Fristad lagged in the rear, as usual.

The forest got colder as they walked further down the mountain, as the lower slopes were covered in shade from the glancing light of the morning sun. The three diamond-clad adventurers could now see clouds of steam coming out of their mouths as they breathed out.

Eventually, they reached the space of level ground where two mountains met. The trees down here were more closely spaced, but otherwise the forest was as monotonous as before.

"Fristad, do you think you could walk any faster?" said Steve. "You're slowing us down."

"This is about as fast as I can go," Fristad said between heavy breaths, "I'm sorry I don't have superhuman strength like you do."

"Maybe the people of your dimension just need to go outside more," suggested Steve.

"Maybe you should stop assuming everyone is like you!" snapped Fristad.

"Guys, stop arguing," said Jennifer, "It's not going to make finding civilization any faster."

With the tense argument set aside, at least temporarily, the three continued along the space between the mountains. Eventually, this former valley itself became the slope of a mountain, and sun began to shine on the adventurer's diamond-clad backs. The vista in front of them was opening up, revealing a land of temperate hills far below. The distant horizon was masked with bluish-grey fog, and just at the edge of the fog, one could see a blinding whiteness.

"See _that_ shining in the distance?" suggested Steve, smiling as he pointed toward the light near the fog.

Jennifer smiled too. "Looks like water."

"Nice. One step closer to finding civilization," acknowledged Fristad with labored breath, as he finally caught up to the pair.

Steve squinted as he pondered Fristad's physical state. "Maybe we should take a break. We wouldn't want Fristad to collapse from exhaustion at some inconvenient moment."

"I could eat lunch right about now," said Jennifer.

"Thanks, guys. You're the best," said Fristad. He collapsed seat-first into the rocky slope right next to him, sighing with relief as he landed upon it.

Jennifer grabbed some cooked meat from her pocket and gave some to Steve and Fristad.

The three of them ate and rested for a while before continuing down towards the lowland hills. Fristad felt hardly any less tired than before, but the food in his stomach lifted his spirits and pushed him to continue on.

Conifers gave way to oaks and rocky ledges gave way to grassy hills. The afternoon heat seeped into the shade under the trees. Every once in a while a creeper or skeleton could be seen standing idly in the leaf-speckled shade. The three adventures avoided them; Steve and Jennifer already had infinity-enchanted bows and plenty of gunpowder. Fristad was simply glad he could save his energy for walking.

As the sun's angle in the sky became sharper, Steve suggested to Jennifer that they build a shelter. Jennifer agreed, and the Steve began pulling out logs from his ender chest and crafting them into planks.

The frame of the shack was mostly finished when Jennifer motioned for Steve's attention.

"People are coming," said Jennifer, "somewhere between four and ten."

"Are they armed?"

"I don't know," said Jennifer. "I think all three of us should take a look. I'll take the lead."

Steve and Fristad agreed and followed her, letting Jennifer scout ten meters ahead.

Soon after the voices of the unknown travelers became distinguishable to Steve and Fristad, Jennifer froze her position. Steve and Fristad did likewise.

"You two are a load of lying, penny-pinching turds who deserve to be taught a dangerous lesson," one of the travelers boldly proclaimed.

"They stopped moving," whispered Jennifer.

"I'll take their fire-headed attitude as an indication that they're armed…" noted Fristad.

"Yep, definitely armed," Steve said, smiling boldly.

Another, more level-headed stranger spoke. "You searched our bags and didn't find what you were looking for. What more do you want from us?"

"Your bags are lies!" the bold traveler accused. "You're hiding the lapis cases from us, and we're gonna find them even if it means beating them out of you!"

A thump and a cry echoed through the trees… and then another… and then two more.

Fristad cringed at the sound.

"Maybe we should do something…" Steve muttered.

"Or maybe we shouldn't," Fristad countered. "They're trafficking lapis for some reason, so they're probably both at fault."

"True," said Steve.

"Ready your weapons," ordered Jennifer suddenly.

Steve and Fristad jolted to alertness and held up their diamond swords.

"Hey!" a coarse woman in enchanted iron armor yelled, a diamond sword in her hand and four similarly-armed companions walking alongside her. "There's three non-prisoners over here! Very well-armed and very suspicious! You better take a look!"

"You haven't seen the last of us…" the bold traveler in the distance warned to his captives.

"There are eight of them in total," warned Jennifer.

Steve and Fristad walked to either side of Jennifer in preparation.

Soon the entire group of eight armed travelers converged some several meters away from Jennifer. A man in diamond armor, with curled hair hanging down to his unkempt beard, stood in the front.

"How convenient…" the messy-haired, diamond-clad man noted. "Your group has scattered like sheep, making your numbers that much more manageable. I'm guessing you aren't the ones with the lapis either?"

"We aren't involved in lapis trafficking, or whatever it is you people do," replied Steve. "We're just searching for the nearest city. Maybe you can help us find it?"

"You aren't involved in lapis trafficking, and yet you know about it? I find that all too suspicious."

"We overheard part of your interrogation," Jennifer clarified, rolling her eyes in response to the man's circular logic. "We don't know anything else. Besides, if we really wanted lapis that badly, we would mine it ourselves."

"More people in this dimension should learn how to use a pickaxe," Steve said.

"Congrats, wise guy. You've secured a spot for you and your friends in our prisoner caravan," the diamond-clad leader proclaimed, motioning to his crew to ready their weapons. "I could care less about your stupid 'lost traveler' story. No one messes with the Jackals. Surrender now and you'll get fewer gashes and bruises."

Jennifer and Steve did not hesitate to act. Steve shot an ender pearl forward, and an instant later Jennifer shot an arrow in the same direction. The pearl's teal glass shattered behind one of the iron-clad men. Steve appeared behind the man in a cloud of purple dust and slashed deftly at the man's knees, just as Jennifer's arrow pierced the head of another. The two victims fell in unison.

Three of the "Jackals" ran toward Jennifer and Fristad, including the shaggy, diamond-clad leader. The leader slashed at Jennifer, who jumped back, switched her bow for a sword, and retaliated against her attacker.

Fristad meanwhile was barely blocking his assailant's blows, breathing heavily as he did so. Then, an unanticipated second swordsman slashed at him just within the edge of his vision. He dodged the blade, but failed to anticipate the kick to his chest that knocked the wind out of him and pushed him to the ground.

Jennifer struck as hard as she could against her diamond attacker in order to buy time to assist Fristad, but her attacker was not ready to give up the fight just yet. Meanwhile, Steve had defeated one of his three attackers, but was still fending off the other two. Fristad was on his own.

Suddenly, Fristad's two attackers shrieked, and fell to the ground on top of Fristad.

The diamond-clad leader began to retreat, blocking Jennifer's blows as he did so.

"I've had it! I've had it!" the leader said. "Let's call a truce! No more fighting!"

Jennifer let the leader back away, but pulled out her bow for good measure. She aimed an arrow at Steve's two remaining assailants. "Tell them to stop attacking my friend," she ordered.

"Withdraw your swords!" the leader ordered once more. The two swordsmen disengaged from Steve. "We're getting the heck outta here!"

The leader caught a fearful glance of the dogpile where Fristad's body laid before the three remaining swordsman and a limping fourth survivor retreated between the trees.

Steve walked toward Fristad to survey the damage. Fristad was still conscious, but visibly drained. The faces of the iron-clad fighters on top of him were locked in a state of anguish.

"Yep, some magicking wizardry was definitely responsible for this," Steve noted.

Jennifer and Steve pulled the armored swordsmen off of Fristad and lifted Fristad by his shoulders. The three of them walked quietly back to the partially-finished shelter as the afternoon shadows began to grow longer.


	37. Chapter 29: Drandinian Heavybrew

After some searching, Warnado once again found the rest of the strange group he was now a part of. Just like Kay had proclaimed, there was a pub in town, and sure enough, that's where they were. When Warnado drew close, Fire's hushed whispers subsided. Warnado frowned slightly but didn't question whatever the two were initially conversing about. He raised a hand in greeting.

"Shall we go inside, then?" Kay asked.

"Isn't Warnado underage?" Fire asked back.

"Who knows?" Warnado responded. "Who cares? So far, this world has no rules. I'm not going to create any to change that."

"Fair enough," the half-endersomething replied, and the trio walked in.

The first thing Warnado noticed was the smell. It was like a mix of rats, rat poison, alcohol, and sweat. Unfortunately, Warnado's sense of smell was about ten times stronger than that of normal humans, so he tried insanely hard to hold back his lunch (which, once again, consisted of salted meat). Blinking twice, he stepped forward, observing his surroundings. Circular tables were set throughout the room, most of them already seating two or three people. Most of the patrons were human but a plethora of strange beings took up some of these tables, which was to be expected if the wolf-bandit was correct about no one being from this world. A man wearing a dark cloak and hood and a skull mask, a girl with blue skin and weird tentacles that sprouted from her head, and a dog wearing a suit of armor and sitting upright.

"I'm not even going to ask."

Kay immediately approached the bar and struck up a conversation with the bartender. Fire followed, but Warnado lingered behind. He had just spotted Jorge the arms dealer from earlier, who was giving him the death glare.

"Hello!" Warnado exclaimed cheerfully. Jorge shook his head and went back to his conversation.

Warnado finally crossed the room to Kay and Fire, who were paying for their drinks. "This stuff ain't cheap, y'know," the bartender said, eyeing the two. "You can pay, right?"

"Is this enough?" Fire smacked a diamond on the table. He added with a slight smirk: "It's better if you don't ask where I got this from."

"Fair enough," the bartender replied, taking the diamond and stuffing it into his pocket.

While Kay and Fire went to get a table, Warnado decided to get his own drink. "What do you have?"

"Wine, ale, brandy, skooma, the usual stuff. But aren't you a little young to be drinking?"

"I have money."

Warnado carried his drink over to the table Fire and Kay had picked, which was close to the center of the room. Kay had already downed his ale and was shouting for another. Then his face lit up. "Hey, Fire, how about a little contest?"

Fire smiled. "I think I see what you're getting at."

Warnado pulled over a chair. "This should be good."

Kay suggested: "Let's start off with some ale. Need to get warmed up first."

Fire just nodded and ordered some more ale from the bartender, who was more than happy to oblige. By then, a small group of people had gathered around their table to watch. Warnado cast a spell to obscure his face, then threw back his hood and dumped a load of popcorn from seemingly nowhere into a mug.

Kay downed his second ale, while Fire calmly did the same. Kay's eyes had already started to droop a little, but Fire looked perfectly fine at the moment. The two ordered another round and drank. This one seemed to have a little bit more of an effect on Fire, but Kay shook his head and smiled. "What next?" he asked, his voice a little slurred.

After their third round of ale, Kay announced that he was "warmed up." While the bartender went to get something stronger, he smiled at Fire, who raised his eyebrows. "Ready for the good stuff?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Fire responded.

The bartender soon returned with more drinks, this time carrying two mugs of fairly strong rum. By now, a large group of people had gathered to witness the contest taking place, some with their own drinks in hand. While the two chugged, Warnado did a fantastic impression using his mug of popcorn. Then he realized that popcorn wasn't liquid and choked.

The two stared each other down. Both were somewhat drunk at this point, but both refused to admit defeat. The bartender brought out another round, and both drank again. It continued like this for a while, until Fire's face lit up.

He turned to the barkeeper once again and said: "Bring a large bucket of water."

Warnado frowned, and the group of people looked on interestedly. The barkeeper was somewhat confused but didn't argue, the diamond in his pocket and the associated respect for Fire still weighed very heavily. A few minutes later he turned up with two other men carrying not a bucket but a whole wooden basin filled to the brim with water.

Without further words, Fire took a flask from his backpack. Inside was a clear liquid, almost too clear to be water.

He triumphantly exclaimed: "Drandinian Heavybrew!"

"Bless you," Warnado said.

Fire ignored the comment, removed the cork from the bottle and let a single drop into the basin. As soon as the liquid came in contact with the water, the water changed color to a deep red. He then proceeded to dip his mug into the liquid and put it down onto the table.

"Let's see if you can handle this." He also invited everybody else in the pub to drink, earning him some appreciative roars from the other patrons.

Warnado dipped his own mug into the barrel. He took a sip and jumped. "Wow, that's strong." He blinked. "And spicy. Bartender, do you have any more water?"

Fire downed his drink in a single gulp, then turned to Kay and said: "Your move."

It seemed as if the red liquid was strong enough to affect even Fire. This seemingly gave Kay confidence, and he mimicked Fire's action but then did everything he could to suppress some coughing that the spicy liquid had caused.

Kay shook his head. He smiled. "Let's keep it going."

Fire nodded and refilled their mugs. By this point Warnado had stopped holding back his laughter at the contest, as had most of the group that had formed. This didn't affect the two participants, who continued drinking heavily. By the fourth time they refilled, they were both extremely drunk. Fire lazily flicked his hand towards his cup, a single spark flew from his fingertip, and the liquid inside was set alight.

Kay jumped. "Bloody hell, not all of us can drink flames!"

Fire raised his mug, then chugged both the Drandinian Heavybrew and the fire on top.

After another five minutes of war, Kay finally dropped his mug. At this point, he was half-lying on the table. He shook his head. "How?"

Fire decided to drop his act and smiled. "I'm immune."

Kay sat up, which costed him more willpower than he had wanted to. "Excuse me?"

"I wanted to make it seem like you had a chance at beating me. But, I'm immune to the effects of any and all alcoholic beverages. See you tomorrow."

At this point Kay let go of all dignity and dropped to the floor. Fire strode out the door towards the inn he had spotted earlier. Warnado looked from the unconscious Kay to the still-swinging door. He frowned at Kay, then followed Fire. As he left he caught a glimpse of the barkeeper and two more men carrying away the basin of Drandinian Heavybrew, presumably to be stored and sold expensively at a later date.

Warnado shivered and pulled his cloak closer as the cool night air nipped at him. He looked around for Fire, but couldn't spot him. He sighed and decided to walk to the inn alone.

As he walked, his mind reeled from the day's events. He was especially worried about _her_ presence, and he was hoping he would bump into her again at the marketplace tomorrow. Hopefully she knew something about this "Entity" character, and what he wanted with their worlds.

When he came to the inn, Warnado walked inside, closing the door behind him.


	38. Chapter 30: Deodate's belongings

Once the shelter was finished, Steve sat in bed and thought for a moment about the strange events of the past few days. In particular, Fristad's strange magical activity made him begin to wonder about another source of magic: Deodate's crystals.

He conjured an ender chest from the depths of his pocket, placed it before him, reached inside, and pulled out the crystals.

The crystals were all different colors, yellow and teal for instance, and were all roughly the same size. Aside from their bright glow, there was nothing particularly remarkable about their appearance.

Steve wondered briefly if the crystals could be used in some crafting recipe, but dismissed the idea. _These crystals are too valuable; I shouldn't use them without a good reason,_ he thought.

Since the crystals were no longer of immediate use to him, he placed them back inside the ender chest and recovered the chest with his silk touch pickaxe. He then placed both the chest and pick into his pocket, and laid into his bed for the night.


	39. Chapter 31: The Lady of Dreams

The innkeeper had assigned Fire a room and then supplied additional mattresses for him to sleep on as a normal bed was far too small for Fire. It didn't take long for Fire to fall asleep and drift over into the domain of dreams.

He was in a seemingly infinite black room. The only thing besides the blackness he could see was a white wooden bench with gold decorations standing in front of him. Fire had been in this place many times before, he knew what to do. He sat down on the right side of the bench and looked around. As he turned his head back to the left side there was a woman sitting there. She was wearing a simple, radiantly white dress that stood in an intense contrast to the blackness all around. In fact, everything about her seemed to be bright: she had pale skin, white hair, and even her eyes had such a light grey tone that they may as well have been entirely white.

Fire said: "Oh, hello, my Lady. It seems like you found me even here."

The woman turned to Fire and fixated him with her bright eyes. As she spoke, her voice had a strange otherworldly undertone.

"It is good to see you, Fire."

"Likewise," he replied, and then asked: "So, do you know where I ended up?"

"I am not certain, but this world doesn't feel like yours; it feels... bigger. It is troubled and chaotic. And it is surprisingly young."

Fire sighed: "Well, that confirms it. I'm not home anymore."

The woman said: "There is a lot on your mind, Fire. It is still affecting you, isn't it? That incident that happened so long ago."

"Yes, my Lady, it is. Loss and love..."

She answered: "Fire, when you say love it sounds like it is just a word to you."

"That is coming from a phantom." Fire growled.

The woman ignored his tone, she said: "Fire, do you think that visiting people's dreams hasn't affected me? Being the Lady of Dreams sure has changed me, all the emotions I see in dreams, they have become a part of me. Remember when we first met? It seems now our states have switched. Now you are the one without emotions."

"Yes... that may be true. But those primal emotions... anger, fear, envy, love... they make _him_ stronger and I can't let that happen."

"Call him by his name." the Lady of Dreams demanded.

"Claw. They make Claw stronger." Fire said hesitantly.

It seemed like she didn't want to stress Fire with the topic anymore; she asked: "Those people you are travelling with...?"

"Kay and Warnado. I don't know what to think of them but I can imagine that they don't know that about me either."

The Lady looked like she wanted to say something but she suddenly seemed to experience a surge of pain; she flinched and her expression turned dead serious.

She put her hand on Fire's shoulder, her tone was begging: "Fire, there is something you need to do for me. The dreams in this world... they are strange. Not all, but some of them... they are dead. You need to find out what is happening. I don't have anyone else here I can trust and I can't go out there myself. I have bound myself to dreams. If dreams start dying, I will die as well."

Fire wanted to say something but suddenly the Lady of Dreams was gone, the blackness around him seemed to collapse onto him and he woke up in the tavern again. Fire's body shot up and he was instantly wide awake. This wasn't how his meeting with the Lady of Dreams usually went... normally they would talk and he would tell her about what he had experienced. This time she had done something that she didn't do often because Fire disliked it: she had read his mind. Fire had come to accept the occasional mind reading, but this time... It was also troubling how quickly she had left, over the thousands of years they had known each other, they had established something of a parting ceremony but this time she had just disappeared. Fire knew that she had a good reason for it.

It didn't help Fire either to know that he was stuck in a different world that was somehow not the server. He sharply exhaled and pushed away the fear creeping up inside of him. He needed to investigate what was going on in this world. Everybody was paranoid, as if a civil war were going on, and then the Lady's talk about dead dreams...

Fire still was troubled by the fact that such a powerful being like the Lady of Dreams saw herself in danger. He looked out of the window of his room and saw that it was still night. He sighed, laid down and tried to fall asleep, half hoping that he would meet the Lady again.


	40. Chapter 32: A Question of Practicality

The first thing I feel is a warm wind, lightly tugging at the fabric which is stuck to my arms and chest with my sweat. Then, the lightless grey lifts from my eyes, revealing a dull orange sky nearly covered with dark clouds. Dead grey grass stands like packed bristles upon the ground, all the way to the horizon. From the surface of the grass rise tiny fragments of floating dust.

An irritating scratching presses against my ankles. It is the dead grass. I readjust my feet, but the effort does nothing but leave my ankles irritated by the grass once more.

Why would Steve and Jennifer leave me in this desolate place?

I turn around and see nothing but more grey grass and overcast clouds. I have no choice but to start walking forward, if only to find shelter from this looming storm.

Thus, I walk forward. The grass cracks like glass beneath my boots. I focus upon the flat horizon, looking for a bump in the land that might be a subtle indication of life.

I then see, appearing well within my vision, black boulders I never remember seeing before. They seem to be growing taller around me. I turn around and see similar black structures growing taller against the dull orange sky. They are like pillars now.

What strange structures.

I walk up to one of the pillars and put my palm against it… but my arm feels only the warm air, and reaches straight through. It is like a shadow.

The warm wind suddenly turns into a cold gust, stinging my cheeks. I feel the gust pushing hard against my chest, pushing me back. The weight on my feet begins to lessen. I curl down to focus my weight against the ground and break the pull of the wind, but the wind grows stronger, pulling my limbs apart in defiance, lifting me off the ground like an ocean wave and violently tossing me like a paper caught in a gust.

A boom echoes through the air.

"You are…" the wind hisses beneath an undertone of stormy gusts.

"What am I?" I breathe weakly, the last of my breath nearly pulled out from the sheer speed of my ascent into the dusk of the clouds.

Thunder roars.

"USELESS!" the wind cries.

A pressure above me pushes me down, out of the clouds, between the growing pillars, and hard against the ground. The ground shakes around me. I feel my back shatter and burn with the pain of a thousand hot coals.

My limbs and neck lay like fallen logs upon the grass. A form stands above me, its arms crossed in disappointment.

"Useless…" I mutter, the only word for which I have energy to say.

"Don't just lay there," the form snaps. "Get up."

I say nothing, letting my form be an indication of my weakness. I am too drained to act, even in response to the words of my own master.

"This is what you get for disobeying me: weakness," the form states. "When you fail to let me in, you gain nothing. You are only more prone to death. Do you not see that, Fristad? Do you not see how your lack of trust in me has led to your own demise, and not mine?"

"Wrong," I croak.

"Wrong, you say?" the figure responds sheepishly. "You manage to utter yet another word, and that one word is in defiance of me? How shameful..."

The figure bends down toward me, lays its fingers across my collar bone and mercifully - no, selfishly! - pulses a shock through my body which brings sensation to my limbs. I am able to move my fingers for a brief moment before my muscles go to sleep again.

"See? I shared a tiny bit of my energy with you. Was that so hard? Was that so excruciatingly unbearable that you will have none of it? Or was it perhaps… practical?"

For a moment, lying here so helplessly, I see logic in the Book's reasoning.

"I think I understand now why you have resisted me for so long. You saw my guidance as denying you of agency. That is foolish, of course, since choice is only an illusion. However, I will toy with this delusion of yours."

The figure grasps my shoulders and lifts me up onto my feet and holds me there, as if I am some sort of ragdoll.

"Consider Steve and Jennifer. Recall their immense strength: their ability to slay every creature that dared challenge them, their ability to shape the world around them to their whim. Do you understand how much your measly power is surpassed by theirs? Steve sees you as merely a burden... an annoyance to be disposed of!"

Sparks flow into me through my shoulders.

"What do you say to this, Fristad?"

"I don't need your help," I insist.

"Fine then."

The form lifts its hands from my shoulders. My body tilts and my face crashes into the ground.

"You can remain like this, drained and weak. You can naively hope that nothing wants you dead and that Steve will dutifully protect you like some sort of hired guard. That is your choice."

I know that despite the Book's claim of the existence of my choice, the Book won't leave me alone.

"Correct," says the figure. "But my presence has been to your benefit, has it not? I saved your life. Perhaps you should be grateful."

The figure leans forward and shoots another shock towards me, stronger this time. For a moment, I feel a strange longing, but I shut it away.

But then, in my mind's eye, I see Steve's willful eyes peer into my own. There is such a sense of purpose in them, a pervasive belief that no matter what troubles he may face, he will always overcome them.

But as Steve recognizes me, his brows furrow in disgust. "Oh, it's YOU again..." his face seems to say.

Steve's lack of respect for me infuriates me… but I understand it. Paired with Steve's strength, I am just a free-rider.

But I don't have to be one. I can help Steve.

The figure reaches its hand out towards me.

"I am glad you could see it my way," it says.

I reach my hand out willingly toward the figure and shake its hand. The figure vanishes before I realize what I've done.

The black pillars surrounding me tower into the clouds. The pillars lean in towards me, whispering.

The grass, despite its dead grey color, continues to grow. It towers around me now, dividing the blackness of the pillars into stripes, an overstretched geometric abstraction, like inked paper being forcefully dragged from a press.

I've given up control.

* * *

Hello readers! K/Dublin here. Been a while since I made a note on this, but I felt I should. Story's continuing as usual. Sorry if the perspective change here was a little jarring. Asane thought it would fit better, and I honestly agreed with him. But, then again, I am a Book of Dreams fanboy, so I suppose that's to be expected.

What I really want to say is, thanks. We have now reached 5 followers who are not authors! That's great. :D We've also surpassed 750 views. This is really cool, thanks for all the support. If you have any feedback, criticism or praise, we would love to hear it. Or suggestions for where the story should go; we'd love that too. This is a collaborative project, and the story has had influence from about 11 people so far. We'd love to here additional voices.

Also, probably going to go back over all the old parts and adding in the authors of each part.


	41. Chapter 33: From one Blacksmith

Fire woke up in the early morning and rose up from his improvised bed. He yawned but moments later all his tiredness was gone. He smiled to himself: being a Mencur-Besh, or "halfendersomething", as Warnado called it, had its advantages.

He went down some stairs in a ducked stance, the inn clearly wasn't built for people his size. The innkeeper was already sitting in the front room, Warnado was sitting on a table nearby. Fire greeted the innkeeper, paid his night and then went over to Warnado.

"Morning." Warnado said.

Fire answered: "Morning Warnado. Do you know how Kay is doing?"

Warnado tilted his head and asked: "Not 'How did you sleep Warnado?' or anything? First thing you ask is about the guy who is still passed out in the pub. Well, I won't tell you where he is."

Fire chose to not question Warnado's statement and instead asked: "So, you have been to the market already, right?"

"Yup. They are also selling weapons there, I talked to one of the merchants, he seemed to have quite the assortment."

Fire pulled his dagger and lazily let it dance between his fingers. "Perfect. This wither dagger is well and good but I will need something bigger - if I can take all the paranoia here as an indicator."

As Fire stood up Warnado told him with a smile: "The arms dealer's name is Jorge, say hello from me."

Fire shook his head and then exited the inn. The village itself seemed fairly peaceful, just like you would expect a regular village to look. The faces of people on the streets told different stories. Fire could see fear, anger, despair and sometimes just a calm mask of apathy. Indeed, those people represented all the emotions he was trying to suppress day after day. They also didn't seem to be too impressed by his appearance, he assumed that they were used to strange creatures at this point.

After walking for a few minutes Fire reached the market. He didn't have to look for long to find the stand that sold the weapons. He actually recognized the merchant from the tavern and he was sure that he had seen him too. No wonder after that drinking duel. Fire smirked. Technically Kay had brought it upon himself and besides, it had been a good retribution for the sharp "greeting" Kay had given Fire in the canyon.

The merchant, Jorge, asked: "So, you want to buy some weapons?"

Fire replied: "Yes. What do you have?"

Jorge pointed at the different weapons: "Longswords, short swords, two-handers, maces, axes, daggers, spears, morning stars..."

Fire leaned in a little closer, he said: "From one blacksmith to another, those aren't your top quality weapons, right?"

Jorge was taken aback by this, he asked: "So, you claim to be a blacksmith? And you say that I am not selling my best weapons here?"

Fire pulled his wither dagger and laid it down on the table. "Take a look at this, you'll know that I'm a blacksmith if you touch it."

At this point Jorge was more than skeptical, first a kid with a hood, now a red-eyed monstrosity that looked suspiciously similar to the minions of the warlord. He took a look at the blade in front of him. It was long and slim and made from a jet black metal, he could see that it was masterfully made and obviously not for human sized hands. As he tried to pick up the dagger to take a closer look at it, an intense pain shot up his arm.

"Curses! What is this?" He shouted.

Fire smiled: "I am pretty sure that you have heard of wither infused steel, any blacksmith worth their salt has. If you have you will also know that those blades hurt anyone but the person who made them."

He then demonstratively picked up the dagger and made it disappear in his coat again.

Jorge sighed: "Fine, those are not my best weapons, I have a few top quality ones in my house. You can have one of those, it will cost you though."

Before Fire could answer he could feel an intense energy flow nearby, only a few meters behind him, he knew what it was before he even turned around.

The Endling that they had seen the day before was standing in the middle of the marketplace, just as tall as Fire but much thinner, it was showing off its claws menacingly. Everyone fled the marketplace in a panic, the merchants hid inside their stalls, Fire was the only one left.

He turned to the Endling and spoke. To the few people within hearing range it sounded like a resonating screech, the Endling however was surprised to be hearing someone in the village speak his language. It screeched back and then lunged at Fire.

Fire's combat senses kicked in, everything seemed to be slowed to a crawl, making it easy for him to predict and evade the Endling's attack. It teleported mid air, Fire felt another surge of energy behind him. He turned around just in time to block a slash of the Endling's claws with his own. Before he could launch a counter attack the Endling had teleported again, this time a bit farther away. Fire saw it charging at him with full speed and knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge this time.

He met the Endling's charge with extended claws, the two clashing in the middle of the market place. What followed now was a quick but fierce fight, both had managed to get in a few hits on the other but none of those were lethal. Fire's coat had dark red blood stains on his arms and on the side of his torso, the Endling had similar wounds. Just as Fire thought he had gained the upper hand in the struggle, the Endling teleported right behind him.

At this point Fire's muscles had gone into overdrive, a hot red glow had started emitting from between his scales and the air around him was heating up. He turned around at a speed that surprised the Endling and delivered a slash across the Endling's face with his claws, making it screech in pain.

Fire knew that it would just teleport away if he wounded it more but that point didn't seem to be reached yet. The Endling rapidly teleported around Fire, attempting to confuse him. Fire's perception slowed down even more, trying to track the Endling.

Fire felt an energy surge directly in front of him and he knew that this was his only chance. He threw a punch at the air and a split second later the Endling appeared in the path of his fist. Fire's scaled knuckles smashed into the bottom of the Endling's skull.

Dazed and unable to muster enough concentration for a teleport, the Endling thrashed and clawed at Fire's arm furiously and inflicted some more deep wounds before Fire's other hand's claws cut the End creature's throat. Its struggling got slower over the next few seconds until its body went limp.

Fire's perception snapped back to normal speed and his muscles cooled off, a feeling of triumph filled his body. Then he started to feel all the wounds, more than he had time to count. He fell down to the ground and leaned against a stall that contained a very frightened Jorge. Fire weakly pulled out a small flask from his coat, it contained a red, pulsating liquid.

He uncorked it and drank. Fire tried his best to suppress a scream as the potion rapidly repaired all of his wounds, unleashing all the pain they would have caused within a few seconds.

He breathed heavily and stood up again, turned to Jorge and smiled: "Now, how about those weapons?"


	42. Chapter 34: A Wonderful Idea

And with the sound of men's shouting in my ears I began to laxly float upwards. There was a ringing in my ears and a dull thudding at the back of my skull, but honestly it didn't matter. I was in that limbo between sleep and being awake where you're perfectly aware of and yet totally oblivious to everything. It is in this state that the best and worst of my ideas would always strike. This was no exception.

I immediately shot up, a fantastic idea crawling across my mind. Ignoring the thudding, I pulled myself up and began to run in an unwisely fast manner. Then, the thudding caught up and struck me square in the base of my mind and I fell over to the side. I braced myself on a table and promptly vomited, before straightening back up.

"Warnado! Fire! Where are you?! I have a wonderfully stupid plan!"

I then noticed that there were only a few people left in the bar, all of whom were staring out through the window in an apprehensive manner.

"What's happened? Who's dead?" I asked, drawing up behind a couple of elderly gentlemen peering out.

One of them turned around. "Looks like two of the prat in the tower's enforcers decided to kill each other."

Worrying information.

"That's all gentlemen, I'd best go and check."

With that I ran outside, and, sure as anything, there was Fire with the endling dead at his feet, clothes covered in blood. Surprisingly enough he looked totally at ease with the dead creature at his feet. I mean, I couldn't entirely blame him but it was awfully conspicuous. Instead of addressing the creature in any way he was attempting to convince an alarmed-looking blacksmith to leave his stand while a large crowd began to gather.

I looked around and, on the sidelines, Warnado stood, eating a taco in a similarly casual manner. I resolved that it was time to approach him and try to reassert myself as the least subtle member of the group.

"Should I question how you got the taco?"

"Probably not," He said in between bites.

"So, Endling felt cocky and went after Fire?"

"Yep."

"Brilliant," I grumbled. "I just had a wonderful idea to blow our cover in an even more spectacular way."

"What was that?"

"I wanted to kidnap the mayor at knife-point, loudly announcing that I have a powerful artefact that the local warlord wants."

"Do you?"

"Well, that's the entire reason I'm here. I nicked it from someone and I'm going on the mad assumption that they're somehow linked," I pulled out the Eye demonstratively, regarding it sullenly. "It's a pretty good story, I'll have to write it down some day."

"That actually seems like a pretty fun plan," Warnado remarked in a totally deadpan manner. "Remind me why we can't do that now?"

"Well," I struggled, thinking hard about my discipline. "I suppose it seems a little unnecessary now. I mean, there's a three-metre tall creature with blood all over it trying to coerce an armourer into giving him something valuable by the looks of it. I think we've announced our presence pretty well honestly. It just feels unsporting to do that now."

"Shall we go over?"

"Yes," I sighed.

And with that we approached Fire, calling out cheerfully.

Warnado then, smiling sinisterly, turned his head to the arms dealer and cheerfully called out, "Hello there Jorge! How are we today?"

Jorge responded with a friendly mental breakdown. He shrieked loudly and grabbed a large axe from a bucket beside him, waving it frantically. Mercifully, Fire chopped the haft of the axe in half before one of us hurt him.

"You two are…" The blacksmith looked back and forth between Warnado and the towering figure beside us.

"Yes, yes they are," I announced, getting bothered that I was being construed as the normal one. I then hopped over the counter as Jorge rapidly retreated. "Now, I was hoping that you would do us a favour."

Jorge looked about to bolt when I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck with a gauntleted hand and pressed him against the back of the stall.

"I said I wanted you to do us a favour."

"Alright!" He yelped. "What do you want?!"

"Weaponry," Fire dryly inserted.

"Yes! Of course! As you ask sir! Is that all?"

"No, know where that warlord lives?"

He shook his head.

"Well bugger, first, give my friend the key to your home, he'll select whatever weapon he likes from your private collection. Then, I want you to run in whatever direction looks most populated and scream that 'General Kay Mandy of the Southern Thaumlands has the Eye and he's willing to do a trade' at the top of your lungs. That sound reasonable?"

"No!"

"Tough. If you don't do it, Warnado'll eat you," I gestured laxly over my shoulder before letting him go and patting him lightly on the shoulder. "Off you go!"

After he tossed Fire a ring of keys around his neck, telling him to check in the attic, he scrambled off, I decided it was time to let the others talk.

Warnado decided to do so first, "You shouldn't have told him that. I was going to eat him anyways."

Unable to tell how serious he was being I just shrugged apologetically, while Jorge yelped and ran faster.

Fire then wordlessly decided to walk off with a respectful nod towards me and some kind of a grimace towards Warnado. I turned to the half-demon - or was it quarter?

"So, shall we find somewhere to talk? Or would you rather wander a wee while? You know - I could just piss off and get some horses if you want? After all, can't leave the entire cost of travelling on our warlordly friend."

Warnado nodded in an equally awkward manner. I smiled quietly, patted him on the shoulder and began to look around for some stables, scratching my skull as I did so, being vaguely aware of my newfound comrade slipping away behind me.

And then, across the wind carried those magnificent words "General Kay Mandy of Southern Thaumlands has an Eye! And he wants to make a deal!"

I then stood there, savouring them. But before long, that nagging sensation began to eat at me again, that I would never be reunited with the others. What would happen to them? Dammit, I needed to get back to them. I prayed that this would resolve itself quickly. I caught a quick glimpse of a vaguely translucent figure down an alleyway as I moved forward, who was looking at me with a sense of opportunity and purpose. It was only a momentary glimpse before the glass-like apparition vanished back into the incorporeal, and I questioned whether I'd really seen him or not. However, there was that doubtful idea that he was about, still following a few steps behind. Somehow I found this comforting, and this unsettled me more than anything else.


	43. Chapter 35: The Prophet and Disciple

The hill was littered with sleeping men, of all different colours and species. Mostly human out of sheer random chance, with fellow wanderers among them. Here one could see a pigman sprawled over a moss-coated boulder. Then there was the family of Testificates huddled under a tree, the father clasping his children close. And then perched in the branches was a slender-looking Enderman, with muscleless arms and smoke oozing from between his scales, his emerald eyes half-covered by scaled lids.

Over the ridge of the hill began to creep an all-consuming radiance, as the dawn began to retake the blackened sky, casting a rich orange nomansland around the peak of the hill. Then, as if from nothing, he began to rise to his rough granite plinth atop the hill.

The Prophet was an improbably tall man with little muscle to justify it, making him look exceedingly fragile and dangerously unstable. His hair and beard were like dead reeds along a dried-out riverbank, hanging low around his throat and concealing his neck almost totally, and concealing his shoulders too in their quest to the ground. He had a slight tick to him, jerking involuntarily at unpredictable intervals. Beneath all of this, one could notice that he wore a tattered and dirty tunic which barely held together on his near weightless form. But then there were his eyes, glowing white from a distance as they stared off into nothing and feared all they found there.

Stood a few paces behind him was the other one, the man the Prophet's followers knew of but didn't understand. He was occasionally referred to as the Disciple, although some said they'd heard the name "Steve" whispered between the duo. He was always armed, and the people always saw the Prophet with him, but not always him with the Prophet. Some speculated that he was an angel, the key to their Prophet's mysterious comings and goings. But he never spoke to them, in fact he never said a word. He was a total anomaly in this increasingly baffling situation.

And then, as the word began to spread that the Prophet stood once more upon the hill, the people rose instantly, waiting to hear his latest prophecies.

The Prophet cleared his throat, and through cracked lips began to cry in a shrill but commanding voice.

"And there shall be one god, then his brother shall awaken and there will be two! And then four gods! Four shall stand against each other on the Long Harvest! And sins will be redeemed! Brother will hate his brother, and they will struggle, but then be reconciled, before being justly punished for their sins! And one god will determine himself unworthy and he will leave. And then there will be but two gods once more! And they will rule together!"

And then he stopped, a look of confusion upon his face. Purpose returned to his eyes and he gestured to the masses to come to him. And they did so.

Suddenly, and viciously, the Prophet turned to a man and pointed a gnarled finger at him. "You! Beware the one who looks through mirrors."

He then paused and seemed to have another vision, then he shouted: "Mortal gods have taken two kinds and forged them into a higher one! Their champion will come to command the forces of life and death!"


	44. Chapter 36: Amanda

Warnado strode through the line of stalls at the marketplace, attempting to retrace his steps from the previous day. Once again, people cast strange looks at the teen, which he either ignored or returned in a less-than-subtle manner. Upon reaching the girl's stall, he noticed that it was vacant. Warnado decided he'd have to do some snooping.

Opening the wooden gate and sliding into the stall, Warnado took inventory of what the girl had left behind. There was nothing but an old basket, and underneath that, a lever. Warnado stood up and glanced around, then crouched and flipped the switch.

A few stalls away, barely audible to anyone except Warnado (whose enhanced senses could work miracles), the sound of an opening trapdoor was heard. Warnado exited the stall and headed towards the sound and, sure enough, an open trapdoor lay in a clump of bushes, with a ladder that descended into darkness. The hooded figure did one last sweep of the area before equipping his gauntlet and climbing down into the unknown.

The bottom of the ladder opened up into a rather small cavern, with nothing but a couple of redstone torches providing light to the area. The walls were laced with obsidian, and no decoration complimented the room. In the center of the cavern, a purple crystal about the size of a dagger sat within a glass dome, which sat on top of an obsidian pillar that went up to about chest height. Warnado walked towards the crystal cautiously, wary of traps. When none were sprung, Warnado tapped a button on the side of the pillar, and the glass dome retracted.

Warnado lifted the purple crystal and inspected it. Blue veins of energy ran across it at his touch, warming the surface. The gem felt as hard as a diamond, but at the same time, it felt strangely fragile. Warnado could sense a strangely large amount of power stored within the rather small crystal. He frowned. "I know you're in here."

He turned around to find the girl from before, aiming a crossbow at Warnado's heart. She glanced from the quarter-demon to the crystal. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

Warnado raised his eyebrows. "Your lever wasn't very well hidden."

"You shouldn't be snooping around vacant market stalls. You're shady enough as is, what's with your demon gauntlet."

"And you shouldn't be housing potentially dangerous crystals in secret underground chambers. Yet, here we are."

"Who are you?"

"Lara Croft, Tomb Raider."

The girl stepped closer. Warnado noticed that the dart in the crossbow was tipped with poison. "I'm not going to ask again."

Warnado stared at her. "You really don't remember?"

The girl lowered her crossbow a bit. "Remember what? What do you mean?"

Suddenly, the crystal in Warnado's hand grew uncomfortably hot. Warnado dropped it, but before it could hit the ground, it shot towards the ceiling and started spinning rapidly. The duo stared at the crystal, and were blinded as a flash of white light appeared. Warnado dropped to the ground, and heard a similar thud come from the girl. When the light cleared, Warnado gasped.

The underground chamber had disappeared. They were now kneeling in a grassy field blooming with flowers, illuminated by moonlight. The sound of gentle waves lapped against the shore of the meadow, the sound coming from a river flowing through the area. The gem from the chamber now hovered in the sky, spinning at a much slower rate than before. Warnado gulped. He knew this area.

"Where are we?" the girl asked. Ignoring her, Warnado walked forwards, towards the sound of the river. The girl followed, clearly uncomfortable. Eventually, voices became audible in the distance. Warnado held up a hand, ushering the girl to stop and be quiet.

"Where did you get it?" a female voice asked.

"I made it," another voice replied, laughing. "You don't think I'm _that_ dense, do you?"

"Is that-"

Warnado shushed the girl and nodded. He moved forward and peered out of the trees. Two people sat on the shore of the riverbank, obviously enjoying each other's company. The boy had two stubby horns sticking out of his head. The girl was pale, and was smiling at a necklace she was holding in the moonlight. It was made with diamonds, with a sun charm in the middle.

"I know your gifts. What special power does this one have?"

"It's a charm bracelet. It'll ward off evil spirits. Trust me, it works."

"How do I know I can trust you?" the feminine voice teased.

"When have I ever led you astray?" At this point, Warnado was shuddering.

"You know, Helix…" the voice faltered. "All you've done for us...I'm not sure how we can repay you."

"You don't have to, Amanda. It's all part of the job."

The girl looked at Warnado, who was staring at the ground fixedly. Suddenly, he turned and shot a blast of energy at the crystal. It stopped spinning, then fell to the ground, landing with a thud. The mirage disappeared, and the underground chamber reappeared in a flash of light. Warnado took off his gauntlet, flinging it to the ground.

After a while, the girl spoke up. "Helix?"

Warnado turned and looked at her. She was holding a necklace with a sun charm in the middle. His breath caught. He closed his eyes, struggling to draw breath. "I watched you die."

Amanda frowned at the quarter-demon. She walked over to the crystal and picked it up, then returned to Warnado. She offered a hand, which he reluctantly took. She pulled him to his feet. Warnado gestured to the crystal. "What is that thing?"

"I'm not sure. A group of men came through town looking for something that matched its description. I vacated my stall once they started poking around."

Warnado nodded. "So, you have amnesia?"

"I didn't recognize you until now, so I'm assuming so. You say I died? How?"

Warnado shook his head. "Another time. For now, we need to get you and that crystal out of here." Warnado picked up his gauntlet and stowed it in his backpack. "I know some people who can probably help. Let's hope Jorge wasn't lying when he said he had a good weapons supply."


	45. Chapter 37: Horses

As I pulled the three horses from the stable I couldn't help but moan internally about my situation - all of that guff about my friends and not seeing them again. However, after expending all of my emotions by the door, I heard the sound of rushing wind behind me.

"About bloody time!" I called, turning impatiently.

Expecting to see one of the metallic shells of the Endlings, I found the same man from before stood in front of me.

"Oh, it's you. About bloody time you showed up as well! What time do you call this?"

However, my feigned irritation was silenced by the genuine cold fury of the man who called himself Steve. His thick brows were knitted together and his head stooped forward as he stormed up to me. I rolled my eyes, anticipating the oncoming outburst.

"I told you to come here! Not to cause a massive fiasco!" He roared, arms flailed disbelievingly. "I turn my back for a moment and you have killed one of his servants and there's some poor, terrified arms dealer running up and down the road literally screaming out your presence!"

I assumed a blank slate of a face and coldly looked up and down him.

"I did no such thing. The people you have bound me to are responsible for both the dead Endling and the terrified arms dealer. I have merely ensured that the situation is being used to our advantage."

"How is this supposed to help our plan?!"

"If there is a plan, I wasn't clued in on it. Besides, the 'our' doesn't include you," I then, in a noiseless mouthing added "Narcissistic cock."

"How does this benefit you, then? Tell me that!"

"Quite simply," I began, drawing up to him with pupils narrowed to knife-points. "It will get me home. This warlord has needs and wants and should be able to see the benefit in our arrangement. He's no reason to hate nor love me if I'm willing to give him the eye."

"You think the Entity works like that?" He scoffed. "And what tells you that I can't get you home?"

"Will your plans involve me getting caught up in another long-winded adventure with lots of wacky hijinks and subplots?" I probed enthusiastically.

"Well…" He struggled, unable to tell if I were being serious or not. "Yes?"

Sadly I wasn't being serious.

"Then you can burn your plans. I just want to get to the Vanilla Craft and protect my friends. I'm done with all this! I don't know if you realised this, but I'm in a pretty poor position at the moment. I'm on the run, I'm suddenly irrelevant and powerless and I'm having to deal with the fact that a man I've idolised just burned my homelands. I don't need your bullshit on top of it!"

I wasn't sure if I entirely meant all of this, but it felt right to say it, especially to this prick in front of me. Another cause to draw me along. I wasn't falling for this one. I had a cause to stand for and that was getting my friends to Vanillacraft safely.

"And what about the others? Are you just assuming that they want what you want?"

"I'm sure they'd be much happier not involved in this," I decided I was going to change the topic from this, he was steering the conversation too well.

"Besides, you could have told me I was going to be saddled with some psychotic demon-child who keeps magicking food out of thin air, and a three-metre tall demigod who can't get drunk! That last part would have been particularly useful!" I rubbed the back of my head sorely.

But he had stopped looking at me. Instead his glare was now firmly planted on something behind me. I whirled around and saw nought but a vague glimmer of shadow.

I turned back to him, to find him staring at the ground with great discomfort.

"This one of your 'Entity's' servants?"

He shook his head in an absent-minded manner.

"One of yours?"

This brought him back, and his glare met mine once more.

"That's none of your concern!" he snapped.

"That's something to bear in mind," I smirked.

So, this translucent figure from before was his doing.

He raised a finger in an accusatory manner and shook it before my eyes, and I fought the urge to brush his hand aside.

"I will see you at his tower! A night there ought to change your mind!" He huffed.

Steve then struck one of the horses on the rear and they jolted forwards. I was dragged along, falling into a large puddle of mud as the reins slipped from my grip. Cursing, I rolled over, looking back to the stable. He was gone once more, vanished back into nothing.


	46. Chapter 38: You Again

Steve and Jennifer woke up early the next morning, as usual.

Steve sat up in his bed and stretched his broad arms in a circular motion. As he breathed a deep yawn, he caught the scent of wood shavings from the freshly crafted wood plank wall beside him. Jennifer's measured footsteps echoed faintly in his ears.

"Fristad, wake up," Jennifer called.

Observing no response from the sleeping Fristad, Jennifer firmly kicked the bed frame twice.

Fristad groaned tiredly.

"It's a quarter to six," Jennifer declared. "We're leaving in half an hour."

"Sorry," Fristad croaked. He turned over in his bed, but otherwise did not move.

Jennifer pulled a chunk of cooked meat out of the depths of her pocket. "I'm serious," she warned. "I am going to start cutting down the walls as soon as I finish eating this meat."

"You know what they say." Steve smiled while chewing. "Cooked pork and base demolition is all part of a balanced breakfast."

Jennifer rolled her eyes.

Once Jennifer had ingested the last chunk of meat, she reached into her pocket for her axe.

But at that moment, a banging sounded from the door.

"Oh great," Steve remarked jokingly, "another zombie. This is what I get for being too lazy to build a piston door."

The banging grew louder until the door split from its hinges and crashed into the floor.

The smile on Steve's face was replaced with a frown as he recognized the enchanted-diamond-clad, bearded giant who strode through the newly renovated doorway.

"Oh. It's _you_ again," Steve remarked, unamused.

The diamond-clad giant emitted a mucus-gargled growl for about two seconds before actually saying something intelligible. "They're here, alright."

"Excellent," a refined, civilized voice from outside responded. "Make way, if you'd please."

The bearded giant stepped further inside as another man; equally equipped and equally gigantic, with a clean-shaven chin and a hooked nose; walked into the small house.

"We didn't invite you in here," Steve warned as he held his diamond sword in hand. "Your bearded friend was no match for us. We could easily fight you both at once."

"What about the six of us?" A metallic-sounding voice just outside the doorway challenged.

Steve frowned nervously. He didn't like the sound of that, especially not in this enclosed space. There was no time to get a look at his attackers; he had to act fast.

Steve briefly glanced at Jennifer and pointed toward the ceiling. Jennifer nodded in acknowledgement.

Steve and Jennifer pulled cobblestone from their pockets and pillared to the ceiling, broke through the wood, and climbed on top of the roof. They simultaneously grabbed ender pearls from their pockets only to watch them shatter in their hands.

A metallic laugh echoed.

Steve swore. _I bet that enderman destroyed these. Wonderful. It's not like I needed another mysterious teleporting wizard trying to dispose of all my ender pearls._

Steve scanned the grass below. Five hulking figures in formidable armor stood near the walls. Two had their knees bent in preparation to jump.

Jennifer's pupils darted to the side. An instinct pushed her to grasp her sword tightly, spin around, and slash at the air in front of her. Her instinct was correct. An obsidian-plated enderman materialized and rushed toward her, parrying Jennifer's blade with an engraved, metal staff, which rang loudly upon contact. The enderman continued to fly forward uninhibited, its momentum pushing Jennifer off of her feet and toward the ground below. It teleported away a second before the landing.

Steve jumped off the roof and stood guard beside Jennifer as she stood back up.

"Are you alright, Jen?" Steve asked worriedly.

"I'm fine," responded Jennifer calmly. "The enderman only pushed me off the roof."

Jennifer pulled out her bow and aimed a shot at one of the five approaching giants. It lodged into his eye, causing the giant to groan, but the giant continued forward, until a second arrow pierced his other eye, and he began to stumble away from the group. A third arrow met a giant's pre-emptively raised arm, and bounced off the diamond plating.

The enderman re-materialized behind Steve and Jennifer, the tip of its staff glowing bright blue. Jennifer turned around and shot an arrow. The enderman teleported away, forfeiting its chance to attack, and the arrow lodged into the dirt.

Meanwhile, the four remaining giants began to spread apart, attempting to flank Steve and Jennifer. The two adventurers, however, exceeded the giants in speed.

Steve darted backward and slashed at two of the giants from behind as he ran. His blade banged into their plated leggings, not the most damaging blow but distracting nonetheless.

Meanwhile, Jennifer stepped back and fired arrows. Several hit true; one pierced a shoulder and another clipped a jaw, and yet another pierced the neck of a giant, who began to gag.

Suddenly Steve felt a hard bang against his chest and was swept sideways. The enderman had rammed into Steve with its glowing staff. Arcs of enchantment energy rose from the surface of Steve's chestplate at the point of the staff's impact. The staff's glowing blue tip began to shine brightly and emit a deep hum. As Steve crashed into the ground, he raised his sword and brought it down with all his might upon the staff, snapping the staff in two.

The enderman froze. Its eyes widened in disbelief as it stuttered at the two rather ornate metal stair banister posts now lying on the ground, "You… you broke my staff! You can't do that! That's not fair!"

Steve stood up. He raised a brow. "You _did_ just try to kill me with your staff. I'm not sure what you expected."

"Do you have _any_ idea how valuable that staff was, stupid human?!" the enderman yelled.

"No," Steve said bluntly. He casually glanced beyond the enderman and noticed that the three giants left standing were fleeing in panic from Jennifer's volley of arrows. No surprise there.

The enderman breathed a deep breath. "That staff was a gift passed down from my ancestors! The metal was forged with condensed stardust, infused with the blood of the dying eldest dragon of the -"

"Are you still trying to kill me?" Steve interrupted, annoyed by the enderman's rant.

The enderman, infuriated by Steve's interruption, tried to swipe at Steve's face with its claws, but Steve ducked the blow and reciprocated with a slash of the sword to the enderman's face. The sword cut deeply before the enderman teleported away.

 _I'm guessing that enderman is too butthurt about his broken ancestral staff to bother attacking us again,_ Steve thought to himself.


	47. Chapter 39: How Many Battles?

After this rather frustrating experience Kay decided to walk back to the tavern to wait for the others. He considered drinking something for a brief moment but his memories of last night and the amused looks of the other patrons made him swiftly drop this course of action.

Kay sat down at a small table in a corner, the table was additionally flanked by small walls which made it even more separated from the rest of the tavern. After sitting down on the wooden bench Kay took a brief look at his armor, still dirty from being dragged along.

He just sat there and thought about the conversation with the man from before. What exactly made him think that he could not use the Eye to bargain a way home? His thoughts were interrupted by the door swinging open and a hunched over Fire entering the tavern. It seemed that opposed to himself, Fire had become quite popular with the tavern folk. Kay also noticed that Fire had an absurd number of different weapons tied to his backpack, he could see a long sword, a mace, an axe, a couple of daggers and a cleaver. Fire was carrying a halberd in his right hand which was absolutely huge for Kay's size.

He also wasn't wearing his white, bloodstained clothes anymore, he now wore a dark gray outfit that was hard to categorize but looked as if it was made for traveling. As soon as Fire noticed Kay, he walked over to him. He pushed the table away so that he could fit into the sitting spot that was not made for people his size.

He directly asked: "So, Kay. How did you get that dirt on your clothes?"

Kay replied: "Long story. Needless to say, couldn't get the horses; also if you see a man called Steve, punch him for me… a lot." He then asked: "Anyway, What's that stuff you are wearing now?"

"Warnado would probably call it 'Bless you', netherwool clothes. In this case they are enchanted to take on the colors and texture of their environment on command. They are also a lot easier to clean if blood gets on them."

A second later, the grey fabric changed color into brown, closely mimicking the bench and brick wall Fire was sitting in front. A careless observer would not have noticed that there was a second person sitting at the table, especially in the dark.

Kay was impressed but tried to play it down: "That's nice, I suppose. Where do you get something like that?"

Fire replied: "It is what my kind usually wears when we are out traveling."

Kay interrupted him: "What do you mean, 'My kind'? Are there more of you?" It seemed like he was less than pleased to hear about this.

"Yes, there are a couple thousand Mencur-Besh in my world."

"I'd take a guess and assume your kind rules over the other species of your world." Kay assumed.

Fire seemed amused by this, he asked: "What makes you think that?"

Kay said: "Well, for example that you are three meter tall, scaled war machines with claws?"

Fire shook his head: "No, if we were to try to have an all out war with the humans we would be crushed within a few months. Our reproduction is quite slow so we can't recover quickly from losses. It takes half a century for a newborn to grow into an adult. Newly born Mencur-Besh are sealed in a crystal chamber of sorts inside a cave where they then absorb minerals to grow. It is vital that they are cared for because they will die quickly if left alone. If we were to start a war, scouts could easily spot the incubation caves and kill everyone inside. So no, we do not directly rule the humans."

Kay noted: "Something about that last part tells me that you still do more than just exist."

"Indeed, we try to gain the favor of humans or otherwise get into powerful positions. Of course there is some distrust but most humans view us as equal, some even think of themselves as inferior. It is kind of ironic that a species of seemingly perfect warriors relies on diplomacy and manipulation to have influence, isn't it?"

Kay said: "It is kind of disturbing to me. But I am also intrigued. It does seem kind of logical the way you described it but tell me more, what exactly do you do?"

Fire explained: "Well, as said, we try to get into positions of power to prevent aggression towards us. We generally don't directly interfere with humanity's matters in any way beyond the positions we have. I for example have participated in countless of wars of humans against humans, in some as a soldier, in some as a commander. Tell me, Kay. How many battles have you fought?"

Kay was taken aback by this sudden change of tone, he replied in slight confusion: "Oh, um... Let's see. Three years of the Onslaught… Arcadia was a year long affair, four battles if you count the attacks to drive us out. I was commander for the duration of the Siege. Before that there was Farrogat, where I was a field officer. And before that a couple dozen smaller skirmishes and raids. After Arcadia there was Zine Craft. I was in command of the Tenth's activities there. If you were to break it all up into actual instances of conflict in a war, probably close to forty. In terms of actual "battles" in the sense of a struggle for a location, about ten. Also, a lot of miscellaneous skirmishes before and after service."

"For me it were exactly five hundred and eleven, those are the actual battles for a location. About evenly split between fighting and commanding."

Fire leaned in a little bit closer and lowered his voice: "Now, how many of those battles have you lost?"

Kay shifted left and right on his seat, this was starting to get uncomfortable: "Farrogat, and only that."

Fire said: "Good, that's not a bad record. I wish I could say the same about mine. War never clearly favors one side and if you fight on many sides you will get some that are a little less favored. I even died in a couple of those battles."

"You're quite lucky to be here then. How does it work in your world?... Worlds?

Fire took a breath, the he said: "In my world, there are some beings that never truly die, some humans are that way, some magical creatures too but of the Mencur-Besh I am the only one since I was the first. Over my five thousand and sixty years I died a total of twenty seven times, fifteen of those deaths were in battle." Fire paused and took another breath. "You know, if you have died many different deaths, you stop being afraid of death, it just turns into somewhat of a respect. I know that if I die in this world it will be over for good. It doesn't change my view, death is nothing to be afraid of, it is a natural part of everybody's life."

Kay seemed visibly unsettled, and perhaps even offended by this last statement.

"That it may be, but it's one I'd like to postpone as long as possible."

Fire replied: "That is clear, a meaningless death is still a bad one. But still, after living all this time I somehow feel like that it has to end somewhere. But if it does end I will do anything in my power to make it end in some meaningful way."

"And after living twenty-six years I'd rather not die at all, thank you very much." Kay retorted bitterly, glaring at the table. "Can we talk about something else?"

A hint of satisfaction flashed across Fire's face: "Yes. These weapons I got seem to be of fairly high quality."

Kay nodded his head grimly. "I pray we don't need to use them. This 'Entity' _should_ be a reasonable creature…" He forced himself to perk up. "With any luck we'll all be home within the week and we can forget that this ever happened. I'll be on my way to the Vanilla Craft, you'll be back to playing your games and Warnado will be… Warnado."

"I can only hope so, it would be the best option… but I fear that it is not the only one, it never is. Something else can always happen. Also, this Eye you have been carrying around, it seems to be quite powerful, if it was destined for the warlord in the first place; we don't know what else he might have. That Eye is emitting energy strong enough for anything remotely sensitive to magic to feel it from miles away." after a short pause he added: "We will see, Jorge's shouting should have attracted some attention by now."

"He probably attracted attention about twenty minutes ago. They're probably just waiting to see what we do at this point…" Kay suggested.

He let the silence hang a few moments. Then he suddenly called out.

"YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!" He shouted boisterously, turning several heads inside and out.

After a few seconds, there was no one to speak of.

"Or I'm just an idiot. One or the other."

A long silence seemed to confirm his concerns. The bartender continued to eye them uneasily.

"Seems I am," Kay sighed in mock defeat. "Anyway, do you know where Warnado is?"

He seemed slightly concerned as he said this, his left cheek folding indecisively.

"I'm honestly worried about him," Kay mumbled sincerely, not waiting for a response and waving his hands demonstratively.

"You probably should be. He's dangerous," Fire bluntly stated.

"He's just a kid." Kay said sharply.

There was a silence.

"Let's go find him," Kay coldly finished.

And with that, they stood, and walked out the door.


	48. Chapter 40: Can't stay here

My eyes jolted open. Only half awake, I surveyed the room around me. The rest were asleep; Tyron's soft growl confirming the fact without the need to investigate. Left alone with my thoughts, I played back our confrontation with The Entity. Though less unreasonable than I had expected, our imprisonment and his demands unsettled me, not to mention his association with the silhouette. Certainly with the extent of this unknown, he was not to be trusted.

My thoughts soon came to the obvious conclusion: We couldn't stay here. This was only one small piece of the puzzle. If it was the case that those 'heroes' of their worlds were entering this..whatever it was, then was there any chance of returning home? Worse yet, I pondered the chance that it may not only be space that was affected, but time too. There were several people in my past that I never wanted to face again.

I rose silently from the heavily embellished four poster bed. With the rest out of action, I decided that sleep wouldn't come again to me that night, and that I should turn to something useful.

I hadn't yet observed what night guard we had been assigned by The Entity, and this struck me as an excellent opportunity to do so. Creeping over to the door of the cell, I noticed that the omnipresent characteristic purple glow under the door was being blocked, presumably by whatever creature lay in wait of any trouble on the other side. Unfortunately, it didn't realise exactly what trouble it was about to come in contact with.

Mustering every ounce of patience I possessed, I embraced my childish side and knocked on the door, just heavily enough for it to vibrate and produce a small sound. I then watched as the glow returned, and allowed myself a quick grin as it disappeared again. With enough time, this would give me exactly the opportunity I needed. Slowly and periodically, I knocked several more times, hoping that I'd grate on the patience of the sentry.

With one final thump, it seemed that our 'guardian' had reached the end of its tether, and the door swung open in front of me. Without hesitation, I grabbed the throat of the poor Endling sentry and gave it the most angry expression I could put on.

"Hello," I rasped, tired and determined to give the worst impression of myself possible. Its typical stone faced expression soon turned to one of dread, identifiable only through its eyes.

"If you don't want me to crush what's left of your windpipe, I suggest you answer my questions," I continued. "Now, why can't I use my magic?"

It feigned ignorance, but really I was only looking for confirmation rather than some new idea. At the stage we were at, we needed to be right about the lanterns. I constricted my grasp further, and it was clear that the creature was beginning to crack. Not even these cruel sods could resist much further, and I wasn't taking any chances.

Without being able to speak, it simply motioned to the lamp with a weak gesture. I feel placated by this validation of our existing knowledge, but before I could ask it anything further, a well-timed kick from the beast sent me reeling back, wind taken out and my grip lost on its throat.

The door slammed in front of me.

I really felt old.

I struggled back to the bed and fell onto it with a great sigh. I had at least learnt something, but I knew my transgression wouldn't be forgiven for very long. I blacked out without a further thought.


	49. Chapter 41: The Things We Do

We came out into the afternoon sun with an air of tension - or, at least, I did. I was still reeling from the conversation we'd just had.

" _It's easy for Fire to talk about mortality when he's literally playing games. What battles has he justifiably won? No risk to his life. I don't even know if he feels pain. 'Not a bad record' - who does he think he is? Patronising arse… Let's just meet with this Warlord, sell the ancient artefact, and get home! No distractions! No interruptions! Don't antagonise, instead you must ingratiate! Swallow your damn pride for once and it'll do you a world of good!"_

We came out into the middle of the marketplace, where the Endling's body still lay. I wasn't even sure I intended to come up to it. However, I suddenly found myself morbidly curious as to whether it was still alive and nudged it with my foot. It didn't move, so I knelt down and looked at the wounds. It was a good kill, right through the neck. Messily done, but effective. I began to suddenly doubt my prideful soliloquy. Game though this was to him, Fire was good at it. I looked up at the impassive, weapon-laden creature standing over me, with a sudden sense of dread.

"It was a good kill," I redundantly affirmed aloud, before rising again.

I looked around for our hooded friend, with eyes squinting inexplicably. It was one of those days where you couldn't quite look at the sky, and your brows seemed to increasingly cover your eyes the more you tried to look up, acting as a buffer between your view and the light.

Then, I caught a glimpse of Warnado coming around the corner. I smiled as winningly as I could, waving in as reassuring a manner as I could muster. Then, I saw the pale-faced girl following him around the corner. I tried to suppress my confusion and unease.

"I see you've found someone!" I called calmly, throwing in a light-hearted chuckle to further dispel unease. "Fire and I had best be upping our game!"

I wrapped the giant on his chest harder than I intended, and clenched my hand, which I hid behind my back, throwing my carriage upright. I was the picture of some waiter in a fancy restaurant, bar the armour and unruly hair.

"I suppose it might be a bit hard for you." I said with uncharacteristic bitchiness, wishing to repay him for the "good record" comment earlier. "I'm not sure how things are in your world, but gigantic, scaled lizard men aren't exactly in high demand in the Sane Realm."

Fire let out an amused chuckle: "Well, I may not have much luck with humans but I tell you, the ladies of the End can't resist those scales."

I chuckled involuntarily at this, shaking my head dismissively as I turned to Warnado and his companion, bowing deeply.

"And who might your young friend be?"

"This is uh… Amanda," Warnado said, somewhat uneasily, as if uncertain as to how much he should reveal.

"I work in the market. Warnado and I… met before," explained the aforementioned Amanda.

I cocked my eyebrows and smirked as I walked round to Warnado.

"An old flame then, is it?" I prodded.

Warnado thumped me laxly. "Shut up, Kay."

"But yes, I take it she's willing to come with us to meet with this Entity? To get home?"

"That sounds like an ideal prospect," She said in vague mockery of my overly proper manner.

"Well then, you're in luck," Fire explained, walking slowly forward. "They're here."

Standing across the marketplace were six figures. Five were Endlings; one was a bizarre-looking dog-headed creature with a purple-tinted monocle. They purposefully marched over in a straight line, with the Dog, which appeared to be related to a springer spaniel, squinting at each individual member of our party.

Then, just six paces away, the Dog motioned for the others to stop. I noted that one or two of the Endlings had grey paint smeared on their chests.

"That one has it," Said the Dog, pointing at me with its black colored finger as it readjusted its monocle.

I stepped forward, pulling the Eye from my pocket.

"You could have just asked. Besides, pointing is rude and you should feel rude," I looked at the creature cooly. "I trust you've organised a means of transport?"

"There's a carriage waiting for you at the moment. Gather any belongings you have and come with us."

I looked around to the others, turning slowly with my arms extended. No objections were to be found.

"I believe we are all holding exactly what we want and need."

"Excellent," The Dog said, considerably more politely. "Follow us, General."

I looked to the others in an uneasy manner, and we began to obey, following the party.

As we moved, the Endlings fanned out, creating a semi-circular ring around us which was capped by the Dog.

"Why don't you just teleport us instantaneously?" Warnado scoffed, looking to the nearest Endling, one of those smeared with grey paint. "Seems like a much cleverer way forward."

"We're not your pack-mules," Snarled the creature.

"Sorry about my colleague," called the Dog. "Endermen are prideful creatures; to be honest a leap of that distance wouldn't be good for their health either."

Warnado scowled up and down the creature with indignance, and it responded by glaring forward at the back of the Dog.

Then, the carriage came into view. It was a fairly lavish vehicle, trimmed with gold, and reined to two fine, cream-coated horses.

I scrunched my face contentedly and we piled in. The Endlings hopped onto the roof and railings on the sides of the carriage, with the Dog taking the reigns. And with that, we set off.


	50. Chapter 42: We'll surely perish

Who knew that violence could be such an effective sedative?

Having awoken, I noticed that the room was as devoid of activity as it could be. David and Destiny were whispering to each other quietly, whilst Tyron was sitting silently, contemplating something that appeared to be best left unknown judging by his expression. Kir, for once, had shut up. It was clear that our small makeshift group needed to get out of our confinement as quickly as possible, before our spirits were crushed and we gave in to the Entity.

Pushing myself up, still sore from my encounter the night before, I motioned to the three of them to come over. It was time to rally our company and finally escape this Jeb-forsaken place.

Only having half thought out how I wanted the plan to go, I began my explanation.

"Tyron, Destiny, David. I'm probably the last to notice that our collective mood is sombre. If we don't get out of here soon, we'll be as good as dead. So I suggest we make good on what little information we have, and devise a plan for our escape. The way I see it, we have two options."

"And those are? You could have just told us?" Tyron groused. David's lip curled in a manner which suggested that he was conflicted as to whether or not to insult him or agree. Tyron then grimaced in a manner that suggested that Kir was telling him off.

"That is exactly what I'm talking about. Even though we're all struggling, we're just letting it wear us down so we agree with its nefarious scheme. Calm down, Tyron. My suggestions are as follows:

Firstly, we can attempt to sneak through the castle undetected. It would require no use of magic, which certainly works in our favour given the...lamp situation."

At this, Tyron grumbled, but didn't interject further.

"What you have to realise is that this could be far less dangerous if we can pull it off. Normally, the only security Entity has seemed to have stationed are Endlings, and as we saw yesterday, it's not too difficult to bring them round to our way of thinking."

David nodded, but Destiny seemed unconvinced.

"Even if we can make our way through, what makes you think we can just take on a horde of Endlings without magic? That sounds like suicide to me," she complained.

I shrugged, tired myself but trying to maintain a positive demeanour for the sake of keeping everyone together.

"Our other option is to take it, shall we say, loud. We break out, smash several of the lamps surrounding our cell, as well as the window behind us."

I paused for a minute to gesture to the window. Their gazes followed my hand, though it seemed half-hearted.

"That will almost certainly get their attention. But by then, it'll be too late, because we'll have jumped."

"Jump? Are you crazy, Astro?! We'll surely perish," interrupted Tyron angrily. He took the thunder so carefully stolen from me and marched to the window, dragging me with him.

"We'll surely perish," he repeated, "on that deadly precipice of sharp rocks below!"

He motioned to said rocks. I, however, was not fazed by his criticism. Slightly incredulous, I turned to him.

"So given the fact that we can all use magic, your problem is? The lamps won't work at that distance, especially if we guarantee their destruction."

He appears dumbfounded, but I can see a hint of a smile on his face. Kir chirped something in agreement.

"David? Destiny? Any qualms with this plan?"

"Can we wait a bit if that Ape shows up again? I really want to hurt him," David suggested.

"You want to take on Glibby? Without magic? Send me a postcard from Hell, won't you?"

David appeared deflated.

"He'll get what's coming to him eventually. For now, don't worry about it. The important thing is that we all make it out of here in one piece. So, which one is it? Stealth, or destruction?"

Nobody seemed brave enough to risk further capture, and so the consensus was quickly established in favour of smashing the lamps and breaking out.

"Well, that was easy. We should start making our preparations immediately."

Interrupting me, an unfamiliar voice offered: "Now that you've established the plot for the next chapter of your lives, might I interject?"

Clinging uncomfortably to the bars was a man wrapped in a brown travelling cloak, with a faded turquoise shirt beneath a leather cuirass. Strapped across his back was a sword, and this seemed to be weighing him backwards as he balanced his feet on the small ledge offered by the end of the bars.

No one responded to him.

"I just wanted to warn you that I'm about. You might want to stay put, you in particular," He lifted his hand to snap his fingers and almost fell off. "Astro?"

"Cooperate with that bastard? Why would I do that? That's what staying put means. You're lucky I don't push you off the edge."

"You'd find that rather lacking in lasting result. Anyway, I'm just saying that there's someone you might know coming along. Anyway, if you do escape, which I personally have some doubts about, feel free to hit me up. You can usually find me with the Prophet on the Hill. You won't know where that is, but follow these directions and you'll be right there." He tossed a crumpled sheet of paper through the window. "I'll be off!"

He promptly jumped off the building. Thinking I must be crazy, I turned back to the others.

"Well...anyway, before that dull filler arc interrupted me so rudely, I was going to explain what we need to do to prepare for our escape."


	51. Chapter 43: Earning Our Route

Several hours after setting off, the tower was coming closer and closer into view. I was sat beside Fire, who was staring out of the carriage window, looking towards the small town ahead of us in the road; little more than a collection of houses.

Amanda was leant back, staring at the ceiling with great impatience and boredom. There was something about her pale skin that seemed almost corpse-like; it unsettled me a little. Her clear blue eyes also had something a little too clear about them.

Warnado wasn't faring much better than her in terms of energy; if anything, he was doing worse. The visible portion of his chin was twitching uneasily. It was as if he were struggling to find words.

I'll be honest, I was in a similar situation. I wouldn't willfully talk to Fire, I had no clue what to say to Amanda, and I wasn't sure how to say what I wanted to Warnado.

He was a kid; he was vulnerable, but at the same time he was also excessively powerful. Knowing someone who could actually find someone to guide him in his magical training, and also having taken in someone barely older than him before, I felt I had something of a duty to take him under my wing.

Besides, his world sounded like a right fiasco of a place; things seemed to finally be calming down in the Sane Realm. He'd fare much better with us.

However, at the same time, I felt concerned that if I phrased it the wrong way, I'd cause all kinds of offence. Normally, I wouldn't give a shit about who I pissed off, but this was different.

"So," I decided to set about matters of business. "We need to get our message straight. We have no idea where we are, we just want to go home. We have the Eye, The Entity can have it as long as they return us home safely - and don't kill us and all. Anything else we can use to perhaps negotiate?"

Warnado looked to Amanda uncertainly, but she shook her head. I garnered from this that she was almost certainly withholding something, but I got the impression she was going to be less than cooperative here, and determined that I should let it drop for the moment. Note: for the moment.

"We should try and gain context. We don't want to get involved in something that could bite us in the ass in the end," Amanda stated, now looking at me gravely.

"The question is, do we really want to get involved in The Entity's affairs?" Fire broke in, in all his eternal wisdom. "He seems to be a powerful man - creature - thing, but they often have powerful enemies. We don't want to affiliate ourselves too closely with him."

He didn't even stop squinting out the damn window. That infuriated me.

"That's a very nice way of thinking, Fire, but we also need to bear in mind that as far as we know, he's the only one to really have control over travel between worlds."

"Perhaps, but we should still clarify that."

I couldn't disagree with that. However, what did bother me was that he suddenly opened the carriage door and stuck his torso out so that he could squint down the road.

"What on earth are you doing?" I practically gasped it.

"There's a fight up the road," He muttered.

Suddenly, the carriage came to a halt, and the Endlings on the back began to run forward. I looked to Warnado, and something seemed to have lit up about him. Something to do I suppose - to focus on. He mustn't have intended to find Amanda here, and there was certainly more to the story there. I'd have to ask him about it.

Fire and I both hopped out, with Warnado and Amanda following soon after. Suddenly, I felt ambitious; here was an opportunity to ingratiate us with the Entity, and to get us out faster.

The Endlings were forming a ring around the edge of the forest, assessing the situation coolly.

I caught a glimpse of a small wooden house off the side of the road - clearly a ramshackle and cobbled together wee thing - with two large stone pillars breaking through the roof. You could hear the sound of swords on the wind, and shouting. I ran up to the dog-faced creature eagerly, ready to earn our route home.


	52. Chapter 44: Steve and Jennifer

Fire stood by the creature whom he had just decided to call "The Dog" for the sake of convenience, stooping to try and get a clear view of the dispute.

"What's happening in there?" He asked.

"I wish I could tell you," The Dog rumbled with dignity.

Through the woods, three figures, plated in diamond charged away from the ramshackle house. They were giants of men, but something had quite severely startled them. One could see in the background an obsidian-armoured Enderman with a staff was readying to strike their attacker, a man in spotless diamond armour, sword in hand. There was another person, seemingly a woman, firing arrows after the giants. There was another giant lain on the ground in the background, an arrow proudly protruding from his neck.

"Those are our men," The Dog suddenly called out to the giants. "Hey! What's happening?!"

Kay appeared at their side immediately, Warnado and Amanda following in tow.

"What is it? Bandits?" Kay inquired, with a tinge of eagerness that annoyed Fire.

"Looks like, but we can't be sure yet" The Dog muttered. "I know this guy."

He ran up to and dragged the nearest giant back to the Endling's lines.

"What's happening out there?"

"Couple of idiots have something that belongs to The Entity."

"Thieves?" Kay called out indignantly.

"You could say that," The giant grumbled distractedly.

"That settles it then," Kay affirmed. "We should act quickly, the Endling won't hold out forever. Bugger, his staff is broken..."

"Hang on, what do you mean?" Fire inquired, stooping in.

Kay was already sneaking off through the woods, trying to get a good angle from which to assail the swordsman.

"Kay!" Fire wanted to call, but he was forced to abandon it as an arrow was flying towards him.

Time slowed and he was able to take cover behind a tree. Amanda crouched beside him, crossbow in hand. She seemed to be trying to angle for a good shot.

Warnado was running after the obsidian-plated madman, calling "I'll make sure he comes back in one piece" over his shoulder before laughing. Fire wondered why was he stuck with such rash individuals.

The diamond-shelled man wiped his brow of sweat, staring out at Fire and seeming to groan wearily. For better, or worse, he was too busy lamenting a coming battle to hear or see Kay coming.

Kay struck him right in the jaw, and Fire felt the impact from a distance. The diamond-shelled bandit winced as the seams of his mouth were stretched to breaking point and blood spat from between them. He dropped the his knees, and Kay proceeded without any reservations, throwing a savage kick to the side of the bandit's chest which flipped him over. His pale hunter jumped forward and unleashed a flurry of stabs at him, forcing him to roll in the dirt like a dog. Meanwhile, Kay casually noted how neither the bandit's skin nor his armour was getting any dirtier.

Then Kay was struck in the armpit by an arrow and fell back, staggering. The woman was clasping her bow tightly, her jaw locked, her eyes filled with rage as she pressed another arrow against the bowstring... but Warnado's glowing shot struck her breastplate head on and broke her guard. She retreated behind the wooden shack, the arrows embedding in the wood and then dissipating.

Meanwhile, Kay had lost his element of surprise. His victim had risen, and Kay had only just succeeded in pulling the arrow, now holding his wounded arm tightly against his side to limit the flow of blood.

Kay raised his sword and the blades of the two men clashed. Kay seemed to wince at the unexpected weight of the man's blow. Kay retreated slightly and reshuffled his fingers, he attempted to snatch at the bandit's wrist, following up by swinging the sword at his knee. The bandit merely stepped back, wrenching his arm free from Kay's grip.

Then, seeming to have fully regained his senses, Kay's opponent struck in earnest. He repeated the same few decisive, merciless movements over and over again, one after another. For every swing Kay managed to block with his sword, another would strike Kay on the flank painfully. Kay would occasionally attempt to strike back and break his guard, sometimes even try to punch him again. Once Kay glanced him slightly, but the status quo was quickly restored.

It was clear to see that he was outclassed from that first engagement. Soon, Kay had to abandon holding his arm down outright just to stand a chance, allowing him to grip his sword with both hands and deal a powerful blow that broke his opponent's guard, and drove him back… but not far enough. Kay's opponent quickly closed the distance and swung thrice more before Kay stumbled and fell.

This prompted Warnado to abandon his shootout with the woman, conjuring an ethereal axe from thin air. The woman burst out from behind the wooden wall of the house, dropped to one knee and trained her fire on Warnado. Yet, her arrow embedded itself in the dirt. Amanda took up and continued the bombardment, and sent a crossbow bolt between her target's plated armour, staining her hip red, causing her to retreat behind the shack, assumedly slumping against it.

Warnado swung the axe at the back of the male bandit's leg, and while he missed the sinews of the leg, the resultant ring as the axe struck the diamond plating did manage to gain his attention.

The male bandit turned to Warnado, only for Kay to scramble back up and plunge his black sword into his knee.

He fell to his knees, but nonetheless batted Kay's sword aside, throwing him off balance and to the ground, before rising again and lunging at Warnado, who was clearly the weaker of the two in reflexes and strength.

Then, Fire realised he'd been entirely inactive during this fight, and ran forward to end it.

"Wait!" He called, waving his arms above his head. "Truce!"

The moment the words left his mouth he realized how silly and in fact pointless they were.

The bandit continued to struggle with Warnado and Kay was struggling to get up, so Fire entered directly.

Upon seeing the three-metre tall demi-god rush towards him, the bandit rose and swung his sword. Fire extended his arm and parried, the blade making this awful scraping noise as it peeled across the scales. Fire then immediately grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall of the house.

"Listen, you'll only hurt yourself!" Fire warned, glancing to make sure his female comrade wasn't about to put an arrow in his eye.

She was too, and Fire jerked his head aside, allowing the arrow to sail harmlessly past. Amanda's shot missed too.

"Shoot again and he'll slit his damned throat!" called Kay.

Both Fire and the woman seemed to have half a mind to bash Kay's skull in with the nearest rock, but it seemed to cause her to back down.

"There's no need for any deaths," Fire tried to explain. "Why were you fighting those men?"

The bandit lowered his head and muttered. "They attacked without provocation. We were just trying to defend ourselves. I don't understand what they wanted from us. We're not even from here."

Fire looked at Kay, who seemed rightly put out, and then back to the bandit. He lowered him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"We're lost here too. Same situation as you. We're going with these men to negotiate with the local warlord, The Entity. Perhaps there's a way for us all to depart on good terms?"

The bandit sheathed his sword as Fire stepped back, clearly still suspicious.

"I hope there is," He grumbled. "My name is Steve, this is Jennifer. There's another guy inside, Fristad."

He stepped forward and then collapsed. Fire caught him.

"I think it's best you all drink some of this. It will stop the bleeding, I don't have enough to fully heal all of you."

He pulled out a bottle of pink liquid, and it was passed around the group. The bleeding did stop, and their wounds were dressed. Kay was silent the entire time for a change. The other one they mentioned, Fristad, was in a bad way. They had to lay him in the carriage horizontally, forcing Fire to sit on the carriage's roof with Amanda and Warnado, those least wounded after the fighting.

Fire wasn't at all envious of them. He heard their pained moans, as the healing potion did its work, and to be honest, conversation would have just made the situation more awkward. Not the least with Kay, stuck in there with two people he had been ready to kill, and a person who seemed half-dead, if not dying.

Warnado and Amanda were not talkative either. Honestly, this suited Fire. He simply stared off into the distance, at the tower, anticipating the coming negotiations.


	53. Chapter 45: The Ape and The Freak

I rapped on the door tensely. Each strike sounded hollow, and I winced slightly.

"We've come to a decision. We'd like to speak to the Entity," I tried to contain myself - excitement, fear and anger were emotions I could not allow to slip through.

There were a few moments of silence, and then I heard a distinctly Endling-like voice, which called for a few minutes wait.

I could barely hear my own thoughts over the din of Kir's jubilance. Beyond that, I didn't pay too much mind to the bluestone. That was enough.

Just as my concept of "a few minutes" began to be tested, the door swung open, and in swept an Endling. I looked past him. It was just the two of them.

 _"_ _Wait, not Bul?"_ Kir wondered.

This didn't stop Tyron in the slightest as he hurled himself at the creature. His powerful arms curled around the Enderman as he flew, lifting it from the floor and slamming it into the opposite wall in the hall. He raised his arm and readied to ram an ecstatic Kir into its dazed skull, but found the appendage gripped by one of its fellows. Tyron turned furiously as his quarry vanished, issuing a guttural roar at the rather bewildered remaining Endling, who immediately vanished.

Destiny ran forward and rammed a steak knife into the Endling's leg as it rematerialised. He yelped and collapsed. Destiny set about stabbing it repeatedly until it vanished, reappearing a few feet away. It was clasping its flank, and looking back in a queasy and drunken manner as it staggered up the corridor. However, it vanished again after Destiny began to pursue it. Suffice to say I was rather startled at her tenacity.

David, meanwhile, was setting about hurling one of the lamps to the floor, and Tyron was swinging furiously at his original target. I initially thought of joining him, but Tyron caught it on the temple just as I took the first step. There wasn't much more to do to the creature after that, so I went over and dragged a lantern to the floor, shattering the crystals within as it crumbled. I felt myself grow noticeably stronger.

Destiny clicked her fingers and an icicle roughly the size of a butter knife appeared, not particularly large, but sharp.

We then set about shattering additional lamps, Tyron by far proving the most efficient.

 _"_ _We're almost free! Come on! We're nearly free!"_ Kir yelped.

At the end of the corridor, a group of men in chainmail appeared, but they were quickly scattered by several icicles hurled over Destiny's shoulder. Two more Endings appeared, claws bared.

Feeling some strength return to me, I dislocated one's ankle. It collapsed. Its colleague ran to attack me, but vanished as I threw a stone at it. The creature attempted to rally, but quickly found itself pursued by David, who was swinging his obsidian fist and blade wildly.

The mercenaries remained in their besieged position, Destiny striking down many who emerged. Then, at the other end of the hallway, Glibby stepped into the frame, flanked by three of the grey-painted Endlings. Behind him was a vaguely translucent individual that I didn't quite recognise.

"We'd best leave," I said, but the others didn't seem to respond.

The Ape began to rush, and just as I began to try to target his neck in my mind's eye, David stepped forward, gauntlet crackling with lime green streaks. He swung his arm in a wide arc over his head, a green orb of energy flying forward. It would have struck Glibby right between the eyes, if David's original target hadn't materialised before him, and taken the full brunt of the blast.

All were caught in the blast, lifted from their feat and distributed throughout the hall.

My vision cleared - he was on his knees. I tried to lift myself, but was struck in the back of the head by an endling. It readied to gut me, but some reflex in me triggered, and it collapsed after a sickening crunch from its ribcage.

I realised how dark it was growing and threw an orb of light into the air, which made everything much clearer.

David was faring the worst, badly burned across his right arm and his hair singed. Here was still swinging at the two Endlings assailing him, but notably slower and more sluggishly. He was practically wailing with each swing. He had leveled a number of lamps, and those Endlings still standing were notably scorched, but he was clearly the weak link. Glibby had also not emerged from the smoke.

Destiny was alternating between continuing her barrage of the mercenaries, who were inching towards her position, and driving off David's assailants.

Then there was Tyron, who was fighting the other two grey Endlings. I noticed very quickly that he was swinging in a manner that suggested there was at least one other in the fight. However, for the life of me, I couldn't see this third assailant. Then, as Tyron launched a very targeted assault on the invisible attacker, he became visible. However, Tyron suddenly cursed him, calling him "Freak", and looked around for him in a lost manner.

Before I could figure out what was happening, Freak ran over and scratched my face. I fell back, cursing. I conjured fire in my hand and hurled it at him. He dodged to side and slashed again. I was ready for him this time, stepping inside his guard and slugging him in the jaw.

Then Freak vanished, only for David to collapsed a few seconds later, blood dripping from a wound no one had inflicted.

Destiny recoiled in shock, only for a gash to appear across her stomach. Freak became visible to me again, only for his forearm to shatter immediately after. He yelped and ran off through a wall, showing no desire to return.

David finally finished off the Endlings surrounding him, slumping against the wall with slipping eyes.

Then, Glibby emerged, gauntlets large, smoke rising from them and the knuckles glowing orange. He was wincing, his skin plainly burnt - the sleeves of his jacket eaten back to his elbows. His eyes were furious, but didn't lose their more calculating quality as he sized up David and leapt at him.

Soaring through the air, Glibby raised a fist, ready to reduce David's skull to a fine paste, when a sizeable block of ice struck him in the chest. He lost balance and fell to the floor, further enraged. Destiny, icicles in hand, rushed at him, ready to plunge them into the Ape's eyes. However, she was quickly batted aside, slamming into the wall opposite David, groaning gutturally.

I saw that the remaining mercenaries were beginning to emerge from the hallway, now halfway torn to shreds by Destiny's onslaught. Simultaneously, Glibby was ready to bear down on David, who had risen and was feebly holding his gauntlet up in a fighting stance. I was torn between the two. Was I to kill Glibby and let the mercenaries (who were now numerous, and assumedly reinforced by ranged forces) swarm them, or kill the mercenaries and let Glibby kill half of the group.

Suddenly, Tyron resolved that dilemma by sending a stone wall into Glibby's flank. He fell to the side, raising his metal fist to block Kir. Tyron raised a stone wall to his side, and with an arc of his arm sent it around Glibby's guard and into his flank again. I grinned, and turned my thoughts to warmer things, and began to fell mental heat become physical. I sent a modest pillar of flame flying up the hallway, where it once again dispersed the mercenaries, roasting several. I would have felt much guiltier for this than I did, but there was a satisfaction in having my magic back that softened this significantly. However, I felt weary. I needed the remainder of my strength to fly away.

"We'd best run!" I mentally shouted to Kir, whose master was still hammering away at Glibby's unbreakable guard. "Get Tyron to grab David, I'll take Destiny."

 _"_ _Can't, he's limited. any leighway and he's free."_

"What?" I verbally responded, already grabbing Destiny.

 _"_ _Get Destiny. Go."_

"No."

 _"_ _Go!"_

"I'll get them to the window, follow us in."

Kir reluctantly acquiesced, and I beckoned to David, who staggered after me. He tried to offer some help in supporting Destiny, but found this fruitless and merely walked along with a hand on her fragile shoulder, offering words of encouragement. I looked at him and he was crying tears of rage.

David went into the room first and blasted open the window, mercifully saving me the energy. I got over to the edge, ready to jump with Destiny, and signalled to Kir in my mind. Then, a most unfortunate sight occurred before me.

With a horrible roar, Tyron went flying into the wall opposite the door, splintering the four posts surrounding his bed and fragmenting the wall behind it. He then fell forward, landing on the mattress. Tearing the bedding with his claws, the green creature struggled to his feet. He raised Kir and ran to the door, swinging in an overhead and wild arc, murder in his eyes. The gauntleted hand grabbed his arm, and then was a sickening pop as the other slammed into Tyron's chest.

His arm now limp, Kir fell to the floor. Glibby batted Tyron aside and picked the sword up. As Tyron ran back at him, Glibby slashed once. The blade raked across his stomach, and Tyron fell, grasping his wound and swearing wildly at his attacker. When Tyron demanded that his sword be returned to him, Glibby casually tossed it aside. Tyron grabbed his sword and slid it across the floor towards me, David and the still groaning Destiny. David picked it up and handed it to me.

He kissed Destiny on the forehead and ran forward with a great cry, but was plainly doomed. I turned away, electing to leap out of the ruined window and save a barely lucid Destiny and Kir; while there was still something to save. I readied to assert force on the ground, and slow our fall, and rushed forwards to make a jump. Destiny and Kir were both calling to me to run back, and I wanted to heed them. Then I stopped suddenly, a clawed hand gripping my neck.

"You, are not leaving."

"Freak," I snarled, fighting back tears.

"I want you alive, but I don't need you. So go ahead, break my neck. You won't live to be satisfied."

Destiny swung where the arm was, plainly blind as to Freak's true location, and it phased through. However, I felt the claws laxen slightly but immediately reassert their grip. I hesitated too long, and I felt the weight of Destiny be pulled from my back. I reluctantly let whoever was behind me take Kir. Freak released my neck and I fell to my knees, looking out into the late-morning sunlight, as it made the plains and the forest beyond it a vivid green. I saw a carriage running up an elaborate bridge to the Tower. I saw the rough slope out to this tableau, and I wanted to fall forward, for it to be over.

They were all screaming - at their captors, at their killers - for me to fight on - for me to do something. They asked why I wasn't doing something to save them? Why I hesitated so long as to only be a retriever of corpses?

Then the bag covered my head, and I probably passed out some time after.


	54. Chapter 46: At the Negotiating Table

The Ender stood in the Entity's office, toes rapping the floor incessantly. The Entity was sat to her left, its bronze shell gleaming in the evening light, which was drawn in the window and landed upon it in searing blotches. It didn't move, merely staring forward.

A few minutes passed, and then the Ender began pacing.

"Any word from Freak?" She at last inquired.

The Entity sat in silence for a moment, before its head began to methodically, mechanically, swing round to its servant.

There was a dread moment of anticipation, before it spoke. It always made her jump slightly when it did speak, as it had no lips or facial expressions to signal it. It didn't even breathe.

"Freak has subdued the prisoners, he will be with us shortly," The Entity confirmed in its usual low monotone. "Do not bother me further… I am recalling our guests."

"I don't know why you bother," The Ender offered, suddenly regretting having said it. However, in light of having started, she decided to finish. "Bul will just state it all in the meeting."

The Entity's head darted back around. "Bul is mortal, and mortals make mistakes," The Entity seemed almost to have emotion in this statement: indignant bitterness. "Immortals are... too, imperfect, but we are at least more perceptive. He is a mouthpiece, little more." It cocked its head. "I told you not to interrupt."

The Ender straightened her back and stepped away from the Entity, eyes above its head.

The doors swung open, Bul leading his motley ensemble, talking away over his shoulder. However, the one he was addressing - the General who had instigated this meeting - was in turn staring over his shoulder, at the hulking form of Glibby as he ploughed by in the hall. The Ender was somewhat confused by his appearance - she'd always heard that he had just one eye, though that might not have happened yet. Either way, he didn't have much to look forward to.

There were seven of them (not including their escort). There were the gem-owners, whom one of the Entity's giants had failed to rob in World 390. Brine was the man's name. They knew that much. He was what Bul called a "Herobrine-slayer" - on account of the recurrence of this individual across Worlds. The second gem-owner, Jennifer, was known to be equally formidable.

There was also the other one in their party. He wasn't in the records. The only thing of note about him was the fact that he'd been found totally incapacitated and was now back on his feet - and seemed to be struggling to comprehend the world around him, as if awakening from a bad dream.

There was the hooded child she'd seen in the woods, who seemed to wink upon seeing her. She scoffed slightly as she saw him, but nonetheless pretended not to notice. There was also a young girl of a similar age standing beside him, glaring suspiciously around the room. It was obvious that she didn't trust anyone, including the people accompanying her. The Ender liked her - something of a world-weary confrontational nature about her.

But then there was the _other_ one.

A gigantic figure quite similar to herself. It was a large, muscular, scaled creature with glowing red eyes. Its coal-black scale was covered by grey wool - she recognised it. They'd apprehended some trespassers a few months prior who wore it - it took ages to get them all, they kept fading into the background. There was something different about this one though - something more dignified, well-travelled - most importantly they were some sort of creature of the End, unlike the others.

He seemed to stand aloof from the others - naturally in the literal sense, but also in a more metaphorical sense. He seemed to suspiciously eye both the General and Bul, scanning the room for ways to escape in the event of a downturn.

And then they all sat down. Bul seemed to expect the General to sit beside him, but looked back to realise that he'd planted himself beside the child - this worried the Ender.

Bul corrected himself and sat beside him in his new position.

"Hello darling, did I miss something," Freak whispered from beside.

The Ender opened her mouth to speak, a smile curling across her lips, before being interrupted.

"Don't, only you can see me. Don't want to look insane in front of the investors - I'll come in in a minute. Have a nice time!"

The Ender snorted and shook her head. The weird one - no, the other one - the one not on their records, was looking right at her with a vague curiousness that unnerved her.

"Well," Bul began, opening his palms in a welcoming manner. "This," He gestured to the Entity. "Is my employer, the Entity. Next to him is the Ender, our head of security-"

"Everyone's a _the_ around here, aren't they?" The child mused, to the General's laughter. "Sorry, please continue."

"Well, yes, other key figures in our enterprise are Glibby the Ape - a representative of the Silhouette." The General sighed sharply.

"Two more _the…_ s? These?"

"Can you stop?" Bul asked, the General plainly struggling not to laugh.

"I make no promises."

Freak phased through the door, straightening himself as he did so.

"Halloa! What am I missing?" He asked. "Goodness, you're looking angry, aren't you Marinus. Lighten up, won't you?"

The lawyer glared from the spectre to the child and around the table again.

"This is Freak,"

"Don't you mean, _the_ Freak?" The General tested.

Just as Bul looked as if he were about to start yelling, and the Herobrine-killer and End creature were about to interject, he backpedalled.

"I'm sorry, we're only messing with you," He consoled. "Thank you for being a good sport. It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I'm sure that all of us would agree. So, you were saying, Mr Bul."

Seeming somewhat reassured, Bul continued.

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Kay, and the rest of you. The Entity is honoured to welcome such distinguished figures. We have among us a Herobrine-killer, a servant of Herobrine," The General smirked slightly uneasily as he looked at Brine. "A…" He checked his notebook. " _Child_ of the prophecy. Maybe two? No, probably not. A distinguished wizard and brewer from what I can gather, Mr…?

"Fire," The named creature explained coolly.

"And I'm sure our other guests are no less charming and noteworthy. I'm sorry you've all found yourselves in this position. I assure you, Mr. Brine in particular, that we didn't wish to cause you any trouble. We instructed our people to use peaceful means, but, sadly they didn't heed such instructions. Bloody giants, thick as rocks!"

"Your words are hollow!" The other one accused. "If you don't intend to kill, how can you explain the miner you killed in my world? Sending your grunts to another world, to kill that miner, and only that miner, while she was alone, that was no mistake!"

His words echoed heavily.

"We have yet to investigate this situation. We did lose track of one of our agents due to a malfunctioning portal a short time ago - it is possible that they were acting in self-defence. We can't comment as-is. You are?"

"Fristad," he said bluntly. "I just got caught up in this nonsense and want to go home. Preferably alive."

The General was frowning sympathetically at him.

Bul swallowed uncomfortably: "I'll see what I can do. We are very willing to help you - we'll ask a favour of you naturally-"

"Then please, Mr. Bul, do explain," Brine interjected. "What service can we render for you, in return for the basic service of having you undo the damage to our persons and our lifestyles-"

"Now!" Kay warned. "I think we're all getting a little too heated."

The End creature seemed ready to challenge him preemptively, but then restrained themself. Brine, however, didn't take such a stance. Fristad also attempted to offer an objection but quieted himself after a few words of interference.

"Really?" Brine challenged, laughing. "Do you now? Do you know what we've been through-"

"I don't, Mr Brine, but I would hazard a guess that I could match it. And while I am not certain on either of these, I am certain that it is in our best interest to negotiate here, instead of tantrum incessantly."

Brine stood, but his female companion placed a hand on his wrist.

"He's right," She insisted sincerely. "What they've done to us was wrong, but we can't change that. We can just get home."

"Thank you, madame. It's good to find someone with common sense," Kay added this last part with a great deal of grumbling. However, upon seeing her features slump from passiveness into anger, he sighed impatiently. "We - or at least, myself, Warnado and Fire here are interested in making a deal to return home. I will offer the Eye, and will not expose your activities if you wish them to be kept secret. Alternatively, I do have contacts in the True Court, and could provide some introduction to the Blind Watcher. All I ask is that we be allowed to return to our worlds of choice in peace and safety. If it appeals to them, I also extend this pact to Mr. Fristad, Amanda and the Brine family."

The Ender suddenly noticed that his accent wasn't quite matching the syntax. It would slip off slightly here and there from civilised into savage - he was overcompensating for an impoverished background. She had to resist laughing at this, suddenly taken by the notion that this man was a total charlatan. Freak was looking across at her knowingly, and she believed they had both come to a similar conclusion.

Bul was about to start talking, but the Entity suddenly raised itself in an eerily smooth movement.

"You will…" It turned to look behind itself. "...all do us favours, in addition to offering the Eye, and the crystals possessed by Mr Brine. You will-use your influence in your respective worlds to broker improved…" Suddenly it looked down before snapping back up. "Relations between dimensions. "In return we will offer-safe-passage… to all of you." It stared around the table in an eerily smooth movement, the light striking its forehead and struggling to keep up as it turned. "I would ask-less but you-have done damage to my property. This is agreeable?"

The Ender followed the gaze. Kay seemed to be nodding along, frowning sincerely - like a confused child. The actual child was laid back, staring at the ceiling as the girl whispered to him. The Brines were looking uneasily around the table, with Steve seeming totally ambivalent. Fire was still impressively impassive.

After some time, the General spoke: "I think we need time to discuss this business. We're all tired, and frustrated, and not thinking clearly. Some of us actually need time to ascertain who the others are and whether we're on the same side. I trust you understand?"

"Understood," The Entity acquiesced, but there was a sense of warning about it. "I expect an answer-by the end of the week. We will prepare rooms. Until then... I confer upon-you the liberty of the-Tower. You… may leave."

They rose, and the group filed out of the door. There was something shaken about the General, who attempted to speak to Brine, but found himself quite easily and efficiently brushed off. After that, she lost track of him, watching the End creature who called himself Fire tower above the rest. He attempted to speak to Brine, and was plainly more successful, but not by much. They actually exchanged words, but not many, and soon Brine departed, seeming to make tiredness an excuse.

After that, there was much to be discussed. Freak stood up and started walking around the table, footsteps making no sounds.

"He's a charlatan," The Ender offered. "A common crook, nothing better, little worse. A lot of mask and little face" Then, to Bul: "You're certain this is the _famous General_ Glibby was talking about?"

"Yes," Bul burst out defensively. "Glibby's verified it for me. They've met, apparently. I'm not sure of the circumstances, but he insists that this is the case. Besides, accounts suggest that he is exactly like that - an idiot at worst and a jester at best. Who calls a serious political entity 'The Court of Righteous Protest'? This is the man we're dealing with."

"I like him," Freak laughed.

"Of course you do," Bul huffed. "You just like anything that makes our work difficult."

Freak sneered at him: "I like anything that makes your work difficult, certainly."

"The topic - we have one to address, do we not?" The Entity warned emotionlessly. "What of the others?"

"The End creature, Fire, struck me as a level-headed being," The Ender suggested helpfully. "He's a scientist of some sort, perhaps he'll be able to help with our technical difficulties?"

"I approve," The Entity entered. "You may approach…" Away again. "Him with our difficulties."

"Brine's problematic," Freak suggested. "I'd keep an eye on him. The kid's no issue, he has great power from the look of it but he doesn't know how to use it. His friend's an unknown quantity but she seems to be no one of great quality or note. I wouldn't worry too much about the rest; they're too physically weak to pose a threat."

"Fristad concerns me," the Ender warned. "There's not a single record on him: no status, no abilities, no history of any sort. And he was looking at me really weirdly..."

"Perhaps it was your captivating beauty," Bul snapped rudely. He was about to continue, but the Ender cut him off.

"Really? I'll have you know the endermen find me quite a prize!" She jested. Freak laughed, cringed and leant back.

"I hate them all, but it looks like we have to put up with them," Bul finished. "I'd suggest surveillance on the Brines, and Fristad. Possibly on Fire too."

"I'll keep an eye on Fire," Freak stated. "He interests me. Very controlled, there's something wrong with him."

"It is settled, be about your business."

And with that, they all dispersed very quickly.


	55. Chapter 47: Strictly classified

After their preliminary negotiations with the Entity Fire was allowed to roam free in the wing he was currently in, much to his surprise.

Fire was walking down a corridor that was lined with long shelves with all kinds of tableware on them, besides the incredible amount of it Fire also was surprised by the variety. As far as he could see there were no duplicates anywhere, there was exactly one item of every material and production method. Some of the materials seemed odd, even to him. One set seemed to be made from carved ender pearls, which was difficult and impractical in more than one way.

Fire passed multiple arches leading to different rooms and corridors with more collections of things. Fire assumed that the Entity really had a thing for hoarding different items, which made it clear why it was so interested in the Eye.

At this point Fire was just aimlessly wandering the extensive corridors, occasionally coming across a wide hall. In general Fire had the impression that the building was much bigger on the inside than it would seem, another reason that led him to believe that the Entity was a lot more powerful than he originally thought.

After more wandering for a while, Fire finally found something that could be of use, in a side room there was a small obsidian table with a closed book on top, which Fire recognized as an enchanting table. The walls were lined with shelves containing different books, Fire took one out and flipped through the pages. Instead of words the pages were full of runes of different sizes, most of which he recognized, some were new to him. Fire then carefully put the book back in its place and faced the enchanting table.

Fire reached into his pocket and fished out a diamond, this one was much bigger than the one he had given to the barkeeper, it was about as big as a human eye. He laid down the gem on the table and started humming. This hum caused the book to flip open and the diamond to float above it. With more hums of different pitches and volumes Fire made runes float forth from the books surrounding the table, a hand full of large ones and many small ones. Some runes tried to escape from their place and return to their books but Fire's voice held them there. All of a sudden his voice gained a deep, otherworldly sound and the runes shivered, then arranged themselves in a grid around the diamond. Fire had to vary his voice more the more ordered the runes became, having to keep each and every one of them where they belonged. After some time the grid shrunk and the runes disappeared inside the gem one after the other.

The runes were in place, the only thing needed now was a bit of energy to activate the enchantment. Fire concentrated and let some energy seep through his skin, making his entire body glow, then the energy flowed more towards his right hand, where it formed a ball in his palm. With a powerful shout Fire sent the ball into the diamond, which started glowing and then emitted a strong shockwave of energy. The book closed and the diamond slowly floated downwards into Fire's hand that he had put there to catch it.

Fire took a deep breath to recover from the enchantment process but then he felt a sudden surge of energy behind him, a teleportation. He slowly turned around to see none other than the Ender, still wearing her spiked obsidian armor with the purple gem at her chest.

"Explain this." she demanded.

Fire knew better than to argue with someone as powerful as her and replied: "I just enchanted this diamond to be able to absorb life force. I normally carry such a gem with me all the time but the... circumstances of my arrival in Nexus didn't allow me to bring one."

For now the Ender seemed satisfied with that explanation. As she didn't say anything, Fire asked: "Earlier, when we talked to the Entity, you seemed surprised by me."

"It's just that you clearly are another creature of the End but what put me off was that I have never seen something like you before." She said and then continued: "I noticed that shockwave so I came to investigate… there is also something else here. The resonance of an ender pearl."

Fire nodded and then tapped his throat: "Yes, when I enchanted the diamond I made use of mine to better control the enchantment. Also, regarding my origin. I am not enderborn, my kind, the Mencur-Besh were made by… gods. The gods of my world, we are part human, part endfolk and then also something else entirely."

The Ender ignored the second part of Fire's statement and instead asked with more curiosity in her voice than she would have liked: "Your ender pearl is in your throat?"

"At the base of my skull." Fire explained.

"How do you teleport quickly then?"

Fire couldn't help but be amused by this sudden curiosity, he assumed that it was like meeting someone who claimed that their liver was in their right leg.

He said: "We don't. Our pearls are much smaller than those of endermen. Individual teleportation is hard and often unreliable but in a bigger group we are able to cover greater distances than any individual enderman since we have the ability to link our minds together."

The Ender simply said: "Oh." Then turned to go but signaled Fire to come along with her.

The two tall creatures slowly walked down the corridor next to each other.

The Ender then asked: "Now, how did you come to Nexus? Just based on the fact that I have never heard of the 'Mencur-Besh' I assume that you are from one of the outer worlds, the worlds which have no direct connection to Nexus or its neighboring worlds."

Fire replied: "Well, I was experimenting with a new potion recipe, that potion seemed to have brought me here."

The fact that worlds had distances and connections to one another was a very useful thing to know. Everything made a little bit more sense now… Fire only needed to find some more pieces to the grand puzzle that was the Entity's doing. The Ender could prove useful for this.

"So, in your world, you make potions and enchant?" The Ender asked.

Fire realized that this conversation was just as profitable for the Ender as it was for him, it was simply an exchange of information, both knew that. He had to be as interesting to her as the Entity was to him.

"That and much more. I am an alchemist, and enchanter, if I had more life force at my disposal I would even make a good mage. You might have seen the assortment of weapons I brought here; I am a warrior too. That and a strategist. I have even been a pirate once."

The Ender laughed at that last part, which surprised Fire.

She said: "Now, that's a lot to do in one lifetime, even for one with End blood in their veins."

"Not if that lifetime has been five millennia." Fire casually said.

The Ender stopped and turned her head towards Fire, she said with disbelief in her voice: "Five millennia? You might even be older than the… never mind."

Fire noticed that they were in a different part of the tower now and asked: "So, where are we going exactly?"

The Ender replied: "To my office. Seeing that you have lived this long you may know some things that I don't."

Fire raised a scaled eyebrow: "Like what? And why would you trust me with anything, I just arrived here after all."

"Well, to be honest I hit a wall trying to figure out something regarding how some worlds are linked. The Entity is fine with me getting any help I can find at this point."

After a few minutes of silent walking they reached a tall door. Behind the door was a room with a large desk and a chair, the rest of the room only had a few bookshelves. The room was in stark contrast to what Fire had seen in the rest of the tower, no collection of things lined the walls, the room only had what was needed.

The Ender took a huge book from one of the shelves and slammed it down onto the table. As she opened it, Fire could see that there was something akin to a map inside with the difference that no landscape was depicted, only a large amount of circles connected by lines, labelled by letters far too small for human eyes to read, but still very much readable for Fire and the Ender.

The Ender explained: "This is the interdimensional map created from the data our scouts have given us, further back in the book are maps of the worlds themselves. With varying detail of course. The most accurate one by far is the one of Nexus."

Fire said: "So, what is the problem exactly?"

"We know how to travel from outer worlds to Nexus, which is by simply finding a tunnel of sorts and going through, those tunnels are especially prominent in the closer worlds. From Nexus to the other worlds it is also easy since the Entity has set up permanent portals in that direction. The problem now is getting farther than that. We were able to locate the nodes of energy flow that form alongside the tunnels I mentioned. We can't use them in the outwards direction without setting up another permanent portal there, which would be risky and time consuming. What we are now looking for is a way of exploring further."

This alone told Fire a lot, mainly that they were really seeking to expand their influence outwards. Another thing was that those tunnels seemed to be directly caused by the worlds being near Nexus, which would also explain why he ended up in Nexus and not somewhere else. He definitely needed to look into this.

He asked: "Now, you have been further than your neighboring worlds, right?"

The Ender replied: "Yes but that was only because the tunnels opened from the other side randomly and allowed our scouts to go through, returning was easier since they only had to take the tunnel back."

"How do they locate those tunnels?"

"I suppose I have to tell you if I want you to help with this. We have developed a special device which can detect the nodes, a compass of sorts. All it does really is search for an energy flow and point there. Now, any idea how it would be possible to reliably get those tunnels to open?"

Fire thought for a moment, then asked: "Was there anything special your scouts reported after one of the tunnels 'randomly' opened?"

"In fact, now that you mention it, there was something. A single report of the flow detector going crazy."

Fire had a theory but he didn't want to tell the Ender yet. He pointed at the book asked: "Can I look at this for a few minutes?"

The Ender nodded. Fire leaned over the book and turned the pages, carefully looking at each little detail, at every label. Next to the typical terrain features there were also notes about the tunnels and where they were leading. The other worlds were nothing special and as the Ender said, sometimes poorly cartographed but what caught Fire's eye was the map of Nexus. It seemed to be stitched together from seemingly random pieces of landscape, mountains suddenly cut off by swamps, ice plains in the middle of a desert and generally terrain features that had absolutely no business being where they were. Fire was used to this from normal Minecraft terrain generation but he had the feeling that this was not a world where he could blame it on that. After looking through the entire book and having memorized all of the maps inside of it he turned to the Ender, who had been standing next to him patiently.

She asked: "And?"

Fire answered: "I have an idea, I am not sure if it might work though. I never had to deal with interdimensional travel myself but I can imagine that some of what I know can be applied to this. It seems to me that Nexus exerts a pull on other worlds, making it easier to pass from them to Nexus. Am I right so far?"

"Yes, that is the case. I hope you don't mind that I don't tell you the specifics about it, that is strictly classified."

Fire nodded. That statement had already told him enough. He continued: "In theory it should be possible to reverse the flow of energy temporarily by infusing fairly large amounts of energy into the node on the side which is closer to Nexus. By doing that you should be able to pass through without many problems."

The Ender scratched her chin and replied: "Yes, that does make sense. I have never really concerned myself with the theory of magic and we also have a very low amount of mages here at the tower and they are busy with… other matters."

More secrecy, of course.

The Ender continued: "Now, how would you go about this energy infusion?"

Fire said: "If you can't use mages or creatures with sufficient control over their magic I suggest that destroying magical artefacts at the nodes can provide a way. I suppose that shattering about a dozen of ender pearls would also work if you can't spare the artefacts. So would a squadron of teleporting endermen, with the right timing."

The Ender sighed: "It's not ideal but at least it is something... Thank you, Fire."

Fire could hear something akin to warmth in her voice but he shrugged it off. Even to someone like him, the voices of pure End creatures were hard to judge.

The Ender continued: "You were a great help to our cause, you will be rewarded accordingly."

"What kind of reward?"

"Money, goods, anything really."

Fire said: "I have an idea or two about what goods I want."

The Ender lead Fire out of the room and towards what he assumed to be the main store rooms of the tower. Overall he was satisfied with the amount of information he had gained weighted with what he gave up. Fire already had a plan of what he would do next, all he needed were a few very specific items, which he was sure to find where they were headed.


	56. Chapter 48: A tantalising offer

Warnado gawked at the massive interior of what he could only assume was the Entity's library. Rows upon rows of giant wooden bookshelves stood, each of which was filled to the brim with hundreds of books. A mahogany staircase adorned the back wall of the library, leading up to another level of bookshelves. The sheer amount of information that could be gleaned from this place enticed Warnado.

Warnado strode over to one of the bookshelves on the right side of the room and scanned it. Various books lined its shelves, including strange titles such as "Incendium" and "103 Ways to Cook Steak Without a Furnace." He picked up a book, entitled "A History of Necromancy," and got to work. Sitting at one of the many tables that dotted the room, Warnado flipped to a random page in the book. A passage on the left described the powers of a Lich, while an illustration on the right detailed a gruesome picture of a human being turning inside out. It would usually be an interesting read for Warnado, yet once again he found his mind wandering elsewhere.

Absentmindedly, Warnado fiddled with the crystal in his pocket. He could sense the power radiating from it, yet he had no idea what it did. He still hadn't shown it to Fire or Kay, and he was unsure whether doing so would be a good idea. Amanda obviously knew about it, but talking to her about it could end up disastrous. After all, even though they had known each other for a long time, she had some form of amnesia. She didn't remember him at all.

"Let me guess, worrying over Amanda?"

Warnado turned to find Kay leaning casually against one of the bookshelves. "What's the history between you two? I'm pretty certain that even if you met before that moment, twenty-four hours of acquaintance is a little short to bring someone along."

Warnado blinked. "It's...complicated, to say the least. She's a friend from long ago, obviously drawn here on accident like I was. That's all."

Kay narrowed his eyes. "You're not telling the full truth, but I don't blame you at all. I wouldn't trust me in your position." He laughed ruefully. "There's something strange going on in your world, Warnado, that much I know. What's the deal there? What happened to your world to make it such a hellhole?"

"Lots of things, but it all goes back to your friend Herobrine. Because of the strange occurrences recently, which are probably somewhat due in part to the Entity's experimenting, I've taken the liberty of studying dimensional energies and how they overlap one another. Things such as dimensional transport and balance. How change in one world could affect another tenfold."

"Sounds complicated."

Warnado laughed. "You don't know the half of it."

After a moment of silence, Kay spoke up again. "You know, it seems that my world is finally starting to calm down. If you're growing sick of the chaos in your world, you're welcome to accompany me home; Amanda too. I know a few people who could help your training in magic. What do you say?"

Warnado pondered the ups and downs of Kay's offer. From what he could tell, there was really nothing he could do for his world at this point in time. If he trained with Kay's wizarding friends for a while, he could eventually return to his own world to rid it of the chaos plaguing it. Eventually, Warnado stood up.

"You know, I might just have to take you up on that. Better than waiting for my world to destroy itself."

Kay grinned. "If you say so." He then gestured over his shoulder and started walking towards the door. "Let's see what the Entity has at his disposal."

And so, they began to walk throughout the base, generally following a downward path, Kay reminiscing on his friends and exploits. He certainly enjoyed his own voice, thought Warnado, but any voice was better than silence. It felt almost like Kay was catching him up to speed on his little group's situation, like a rather informal briefing.

"We picked Mini and Bokane up in the Survival Games. Bokane was one of the guards; none too happy with his situation, so Astro cut a deal to get him and his little half-breed friend out in return for their help. I took a shine for Mini afterwards so we ended up taking them along. Actually, I'll tell you what he did when we first met!" He chuckled. "I'm running across this desert with Cossack and Small - I have told you about Small, right? Ah, I'll explain later! So, I'm running over this dune, when all of a sudden, just as I crest it-"

"Wait," Warnado interrupted, suddenly hearing a disturbance. "Something's happening up ahead."

"Ooh," Kay laughed. "Do tell."

The sparsely torchlit hallway would normally offer little in terms of vision to a normal human, but due to his status as a quarter-demon, Warnado could just make out an iron doorway up ahead. He turned around, realizing that he had been too engrossed in Kay's story to notice where they had traveled. Looking back at the door, he spoke.

"I'm pretty sure we've found the dungeon." A smile crept onto Warnado's face. "Are you up for a bit of snooping around?"

"Well," Kay smiled. "How could I refuse such a tantalising offer?"

Warnado cleared the hallways in several strides, Kay following closely behind. Trying the rusty doorknob, Warnado found it (unsurprisingly) locked.

"Oh, well. Looks like we're going to have to turn back," Warnado admitted sadly.

Kay frowned.

"I meant that sarcastically."

Conjuring a key out of thin air, Warnado pressed it into the lock. It stuck fast, but after some fiddling with the key's dimensions, the door clicked open and swung inwards. The duo were met with a branching hallway, with two paths going left and right. After a brief discussion, the two split up.


	57. Chapter 49: Might as Well Show Myself

Steve stands in his diamond armor as always, leaning against a meters-high medley stack of chairs, his legs crossed. Every part of his body is void of emotion, except for his eyes, which are livid. Jennifer sits on an upright chair at the top of a pile, while I sit on the lip of a chair sticking out from the same pile. Sofas, armchairs, stools… you name a chair, and it's probably somewhere in that pile.

The room we are in is tightly packed with assorted chairs such as these, like an overstocked antique furniture shop. Green tinted light filters down upon us from a stained glass ceiling dome, while purple light flickers from lanterns on the indented walls.

"So…" Jennifer begins, "we've encountered some form of civilization, but it's not exactly what we expected."

"You could say that." Steve remarks sardonically.

"An unfriendly one?" I suggest. "Friendly civilizations don't go around taking people from other worlds and trying to steal their magical artifacts."

"Let's get one thing straight!" Steve snaps. "We have no magical artifacts. No crystals. Nothing that these people - or creatures, or humanoid animal things - might want. Got it?"

Steve stares me down with urgency, an implied message that we are not to speak of the crystals.

"Loud and clear," I reply.

As much as I wish we could just give up the crystals and go home, Steve is wise to keep the crystals a secret. There's no telling what these people will use the crystals for, and no guarantee that these people will honor their promise to send us home. He might have his own personal reasons as well; perhaps the crystals are more valuable to him than he is letting out.

It's also in my best interest to cooperate with Steve. His protection is preferable to the influence of that fiendish parasite, the book…

I still can't believe its influence suddenly vanished when we entered the castle. What caused it? Did the fight with those lapis traffickers take too heavy a toll? Or does it have something to do with this castle's infrastructure?

Either way, it's in my best interest to get rid of it while I still can, for the sake of my own sense of agency. Could it perhaps be used as a bargaining chip?

Perhaps I should finally tell Steve and Jennifer about the book. I trust them enough at this point to know that we're on the same side.

"There's something I should probably tell you about at this point..." I begin.

I reach beneath my diamond leggings and grasp the squarish mass within my right back pocket. The brows of Steve and Jennifer lift in intrigue for a moment, then lower in disappointment as they realize that the object I bring before them is simply a book.

"Let me guess:" Steve muses, grinning. "You're showing us your spellbook, and you're about to explain your magicking wizard powers to us."

"No and yes," I respond. "This is no spellbook, but it _is_ the source of my powers… if you could even call them my powers."

Steve's eyes light up with curiosity.

"The first time I saw it, I was in a nightmare. As far as I can tell, it snuck its way into an almanac, and then I read the almanac, and that's when it took control of my dreams."

"What do you mean by 'it'?" Jennifer asks, concerned yet critical.

"The being which inhabits this book," I explain. "The book is sentient."

"So, it used to be an almanac, but then it entered your dreams?" Jennifer asks.

"No," I clarify. "It always was the same almanac, but it can change its appearance."

Jennifer and Steve look at each other for a moment, mirroring confusion and incredulity.

"So, what other sort of magicking powers does it have?" asks Steve.

"I'm glad you asked," I respond with a hint of sarcasm. "It takes control of my mind, teleports back to me if I try to get rid of it, and channels its void magic powers through my body. One time, it turned me into a skeleton. But right now, it's pretty much inactive, and I have no idea why."

Steve and Jennifer look at each other again.

"That explains a lot of things…" says Steve.

I nod. "As you can probably imagine, it has not had the most positive influence on me, which is why I would like to get rid of it in the most useful way possible. I would like to offer it as a bargaining chip with the Entity."

Steve leans forward. "Are you really sure that's - "

"Shh!" Jennifer hisses. Her eyes dart back and forth. "Someone's listening in on our conversation."

Steve and I turn silent and shift our heads about, searching for the source of the noise that Jennifer heard.

A mysterious voice speaks. "Since it seems my presence is already known, I might as well show myself."

An enderwoman, who I recognize from earlier, walks out from behind the pile of chairs next to Jennifer, and glares at her.

"It seems your hearing is sharp, human, but not as sharp as mine." The enderwoman's head slowly turns to face me.

I wince slightly, in part anticipating the enderwoman to lash out at me from eye contact, in part realizing the enderwoman may have overheard much of my discussion of the book.

"Are you afraid of me?" the enderwoman speaks with a relish, a smile creeping into her voice.

"I keep thinking you'll attack me if I look into your eyes," I admit.

"I see," the enderwoman responds. "You're from one of those worlds with a more… barbaric strain of our kind. Deplorable indeed, but I'm sure there are other aspects of your world which may be useful to us. But first… I will take your book."

The enderwoman outstretches her darkened, bony arm and holds the clawed fingers open. Up close, I can see that her skin is more reptilian than that of the endermen I've come to know.

I hesitate for a moment.

"I can also take your neck if you want," the enderwoman barks. "Your choice."

I glance toward Steve, who stands still, evidently not in the state of mind to fight when the risk of group retaliation is high.

I place the book in the enderwoman's hand, which grasps the cover by its claw-tipped fingers.

"Come with me, human. You two, Steve and Jennifer?" She cocks her head curiously before nodding to confirm it to herself. "Do not try to follow us."

Feeling my neck burn with fear, all too aware of my weakness, I walk alongside the enderwoman.

"Where are you going?" I hear Steve protest behind me.


	58. Chapter 50: Exeunt Fire

Fire stepped through the entrance to yet another expansive room in the tower, this room's unique feature seemed to be the countless chairs that were stacked on top of another for unknown reasons. The clash of green and purple light in the room made it seem even more surreal and nonsensical than it already was. Fire looked through the room and saw two humans standing in it, he had seen them earlier at the negotiation. If he recalled correctly those were Steve and Jennifer. During the negotiation they both had remained mostly silent, which hadn't been difficult since Kay and Warnado had the talking front more than covered. Bul had referred to them as "gem-owners", whatever that meant. Fire walked towards them and said nothing, waiting for them to notice him and start a conversation if they so chose.

The man stood up and stared at him: "Where are you going?" The tone was accusatory, but there was tremor in it. He was unnerved. Fire looked past them and saw the strange one, Fristad, being tentatively led away by the Ender.

"I had wondered where she had teleported off to…" Fire said to himself and then replied: "I'm leaving the tower."

Steve suddenly looked to Jennifer and back. They both seemed to shift uneasily.

Steve was plainly about to inquire quite angrily.

"Why? Where to?" Jennifer asked, trying to sound more diplomatic than Steve was plainly willing to be.

Fire spoke quietly, knowing full well about the senses of the endfolk: "I just came across some very intriguing information about how this world and its place among other worlds and now I need to do some research and find a few specific items."

Steve blinked quickly.

"Really?" Jennifer broke out, before hastily adding: "What did you say your name was again? Flame? Fire?"

"Fire." He simply said.

"Good to know. Listen, I know this'll sound very opportunistic - but if you can perhaps share some of this with us - once and if you've figured this out," She lowered her voice. "We don't trust these guys at all, to be honest. We don't feel comfortable making a deal. As such…" She waved her hand in a circular motion instead of finishing the sentence, but Fire caught on.

Steve nodded along, literally swallowing as his pride receded.

Fire explained: "I will set up camp in a town near here. My theory about travel takes some time to be validated, so if you leave soon you can find me there." He took a quick glance over his shoulder. "Just so you know, we can assume that everything we are saying right now is heard by someone, when you come to the town I can maybe say more."

Jennifer nodded knowingly at Fire. She looked to Steve and nodded at him. He nodded in agreement. They then both looked back at Fire and thanked him in a manner that he felt was sincere and respectful.

He then left the room in the same direction as the Ender and Fristad, soon reaching the entrance gates of the tower. It seemed like the endling guards had already gotten word from the Ender that Fire was free to go.

Fire was quickly running along the road away from the tower. He had abandoned most of the weapons he had picked up in the village, only keeping a battle axe, the halberd and of course his wither dagger. Normally he wouldn't do this since he was in a mostly unknown world and could need every resource possible, while this was true he now also had a plan. The first step of this plan was to get to a town as quickly as possible.

Fire's steps were long and fast, he didn't have to hold back like when he travelled with Warnado and Kay. Within one hour he covered the distance to the closest town that had taken them half a day when they were using the overloaded carriage. The town was nothing special, not fortified, just an agglomeration of houses built without a plan. It reminded him very much of the town Redwater in his world only that Redwater was bigger and located next to a river. Where Redwater had fishing huts, this town had farms scattered around it, supplying it with wheat, meat and milk.

Just as the road changed from dirt to cobblestone Fire saw the first inhabitant of the town, a man walking in the opposite direction. Much like with the people in the village, Fire's appearance didn't seem to cause more than a few seconds of staring and then moving along. As Fire ventured deeper into the town, he saw more and more people on the street. When he reached the marketplace he noticed that he was drawing more attention than he had expected. It wasn't entirely unwarranted since he did look a lot like the Entity's minions which the people here were familiar with but was different enough to be interesting. Everyone was giving him a berth, if out of respect or fear he didn't know.

A group of five children was brave, curious or naive enough to directly approach him. The boy leading the group seemed to also serve as its spokesperson.

He quietly and slowly asked: "What are you?"

Fire knelt down and still towered above the group, he answered: "I was made by the gods of another world and recently arrived in this one."

He had no reason to lie and while the "created by gods" story wasn't entirely accurate it was the closest to reality without opening up more questions.

The boy looked at him skeptically. "So, you are a demon? Cause you don't look like an angel."

Fire chuckled. "Maybe I am. I am many things."

Mystery never failed to fascinate children.

A girl from the group asked: "How do we know you aren't like the mean purple lady?"

Fire chuckled again and gathered up a few straws from the ground and put them into his hand.

He asked: "Can the purple lady do this?"

Fire's thoughts focused on his palm. The spell he was about to cast was a simple one that used almost none of his precious life force, it was the same he had used to light his drink on fire during his drinking contest with Kay. A single drop of life force formed in his palm and immediately turned into embers, lighting the straws on fire. As the small flames climbed out of his hand and into the air above the children stared in awe.

Fire extinguished the flames by closing his hand, he asked: "I don't suppose you know where I can find a tavern around here."


	59. Chapter 51: Clark Belmont, Cartographer

The Enderwoman and I walk for a time through a series of halls and ascend several flights of stairs. Through the occasional window, I see the leafy lumps of the forest grow progressively smaller, and better understand just how tall this castle truly is.

The enderwoman finally exits the spiral of stairs, and I follow after her. The halls here are more heavily guarded, an armored person for every doorway, wearing strange darkly-colored armor and carrying glowing swords. Their stillness, straight posture, and bulkiness communicate great military discipline and formidable strength. Most are human, some are endermen, others are halfbloods perhaps. Yet others are definitely alien. One has slimy appendages dangling from its dark grey cheeks and sharp spines along the centerline of its hairless head. Another has a face made of fire, and its entire form seems to fade in and out of existence.

And, everywhere I look, there are purple lamps. Why is the man-made lighting of this world such a strange color? Perhaps it has something to do with the large number of endermen here.

The enderwoman finally stops at a door guarded by a human, and opens it. I see inside a library-like room, well-furnished but not crowded, with some tables covered in maps, labeled sketches, and open books. At the back of the room, a man and a woman in regal outfits lean over a table, bickering.

"This dimension belongs over here," orders the man.

"You're wrong. I double-checked the triangulation."

"Then check the other two!"

"I already did that," insists the woman.

"Neighboring worlds of that distance can't possibly communicate with each other," insists the man.

"Maybe they can."

The enderwoman interrupts. "Clark, if you could be so kind, I have a matter which requires your attention."

The man and woman become silent. The woman stands up halfway, and stares at the enderwoman sheepishly, while the man stands up and turns to face her directly.

The enderwoman continues. "This human, which calls itself Fristad, entered Nexus several days ago. As he is not in our records, and he is too weak to be a threat, I judged it best to bring him directly to you."

The man's eyes light up. "It's wonderful to meet you, Mister Fristad. My name is Clark Belmont; I'm the dimensional demographer. I'd love to learn more about you and your world."

Belmont's enthusiasm and warmth make me feel comfortable and welcome in his presence, despite me knowing better than to divulge important information to a member of a potentially evil organization with unknown motives.

"What do you wish to know?" I ask cautiously.

"Does the world you live in have a name?" Clark asks.

"Minecraftia," I state.

"I see," Clark nods. "Are you a member of any kingdom, country, or city-state?"

"The Farlands," I say.

"Very interesting…" Clark muses. "I know of many worlds which have places called the Farlands, but only a handful of them are inhabited by humans, and none of them consider the Farlands to be a country." Clark looks at the enderwoman. "We may have a new world on our hands. It must be a fascinating one!"

"I hope it isn't," the enderwoman growls.

Clark looks confused at the enderwoman for a moment, then stares at me inquisitively. Whatever information he gets out of me now, he will surely associate with my world. I hope, too, that my world is not fascinating, as that is my most likely route to escaping this place unscathed. If only I never had the book…

As if the enderwoman was reading my mind, she lifts the book she had confiscated from me, to draw Clark's attention to it.

"This human had this book with him," says the enderwoman. "He claims it is sentient, and capable of possession, teleportation, shapeshifting, and possibly other magical abilities."

"Fascinating. You don't see magic like that every day," Clark says. "Do you know where it came from?"

"He mentioned some implausible story of it possessing an almanac he was reading. I suspect he is withholding information."

"Full disclosure," I state, trying to steer myself out of their attention, "the book told me that story. I don't know if it's actually true. And the book has a tendency to say pathological lies and complete nonsense. With the level of corrupting influence it's had on me, I doubt anything I say will be of use to you."

"Are you kidding?" remarks Clark. "Cohesive or not, I'm sure our wizards would love to hear more about the corrupting influence that book has had on you."

Dang it! My attempt to downplay my knowledge backfired!

Clark continues, "they may even be able to help you recover from the magical trauma you experienced. It's not like we're all evil villains here or anything!"

Clark's response is so saccharine that it feels mechanical. I don't trust him, let alone the enderwoman, or anyone else from this castle.

"Sounds like a typical attempt to evade questioning, nothing more," the enderwoman remarks with contempt as it turns its head down towards me. "Do not try to play games with us, Fristad. We will get the information we want from you whether you comply or not. Then the Entity will compensate you as it sees fit, depending on your degree of compliance."

The enderwoman turns to face Clark again. "You shall not imply to the wizards that they are obligated to relieve Fristad of any injuries, psychic or otherwise. That is for the Entity to decide. I will not tolerate any more insubordination from you."

"I understand. My apologies," says Clark.

"Shall we discuss your world in more detail, Fristad? Or shall you choose not to comply, and face the consequences?"

"I will comply," I state soberly.


	60. Chapter 52: The Lady Smiles

The children had pointed Fire to a tavern which was run by the parents of the group leader. At first the parents had looked at Fire questioningly but like in almost any other case, a diamond said more than a thousand words and prevented words from being said in the other direction. The room Fire had taken was one directly under the roof and was only reachable over a ladder through a trap door.

This was the room where Fire put the supplies he had chosen as a reward to use. Using a blaze rod Fire constructed a brewing stand, using some iron he made a cauldron. Fire's plan was to brew a potion that would allow him to sense the connections between worlds. He didn't know much about the Entity's plans but what little he knew he didn't like.

With the information he had gained from the Ender's dimensional atlas he knew how to get to his own world. He didn't intend on staying there for too long, he wanted to get a few things including his armor and weapons. What was most important though was the potion that brought him here, the way he understood, it was a free passage to Nexus from the outer worlds. While thinking about his plan Fire kept on adding ingredients to his potion. Nobody bothered him while he refined his plan.

First came a dried creeper heart, it made the water violently bubble as it was dropped in. The heart was followed by wither bone dust, which caused the the now swollen heart to slowly decay and mix with the rest of the liquid. Fire stirred the potion for a while and then added in some yellow flower petals which wilted the instant they touched the potion, after stirring for some more time the dark oak stick Fire was using had decayed as well, it was yet another ingredient.

This potion would prove more difficult than most others Fire had brewed since he had only the materials he chose in the tower and nothing else, most importantly he didn't have his potion journal or any of his tools. This potion would be trivial if he would have some of his rarer ingredients but it turned out that not even the Entity had a mob puppet from a spawner in its stores.

In the evening Fire went to bed, the potion was half-done, it would need some time before he could add more ingredients so sleeping was the best thing he could do.

Before he laid down he took the diamond he had enchanted in the tower from his backpack. It had lost its signature blue color and was completely clear now. He had enchanted it to store life force in case he would have to cast spells that were more powerful than the embers he had created earlier. His own life force was very limited but when he got his hands on a bigger supply he could make good use of it. He would also need a lot of life force to open portals back to the worlds next to Nexus.

Fire held the diamond in is right hand and concentrated once again, he felt his life force flowing towards the diamond. When the first drop arrived a faint glow appeared inside of it which brightened as more of Fire's life force was stored. After Fire had deposited a large portion of his life force inside of the diamond he felt very tired. The last thing Fire did before falling asleep was storing the gem back in his backpack. His life force would be refilled by the time he woke up.

After Fire had fallen asleep he found himself in the black space with the bench again, the white phantom known as the Lady of Dreams was already sitting next to him, which was unusual.

"You have been waiting for me?" Fire asked.

The Lady replied in her otherworldly voice: "Yes, I have. After my sudden departure I have some explaining to do, I think."

"Yes, you talked about dead dreams and then you were gone."

The Lady looked at Fire with worry. "I didn't throw you into a nightmare, did I?"

Fire shook his head: "No you didn't."

She said: "I have been exploring this world's dreams. Most of them are like the ones I know but I came across about a dozen of them that were strange. When I tried to enter them I just saw… I saw… nothing I can describe with words. The closest thing would be grey but not only the color, every sense was grey. I managed to enter one of those dreams but inside was nothing but more grey, in the middle was a body. It was hard to tell if it was sleeping or dead. I have never seen something truly sleeping or dead in dreams. The longer I remained the more the grey started pulling on my own essence. Tearing away was painful, almost like I had hooks inside of me. I then tried to get into the other dead dreams, they were different kinds of grey but they all had something connecting them."

"That is worrying. As you said last time, I should definitely try to find out more about this."

The Lady just nodded.

Fire said: "In other news, I now have a way to get home."

The Lady smiled. "That is great news!"

"I won't be staying for too long. There is a warlord here that has some strange plans and I intend on finding out what exactly it is and if it is dangerous to my world. Or any other worlds. As it stands now, it could very well be."

"Fire, I'll have you know that I have seen you in someone else's dream here, recently even. I don't know who the owner of the dream was, I didn't meet them, it is none of your companions though."

The Lady usually didn't talk about other people's dreams, Fire was one of the few who she trusted with them. She had told him about things where she had no advice to offer to the dreaming person and hoped that Fire with his long life had some advice of his own. Above all the Lady cared about that the dreamers she visited were helped.

Fire was curious about the dream, especially since it involved him. He asked: "Anything special about that dream?"

"It was unusual to say the least, very heavy on emotions and also decidedly purple. I had problems seeing more as if something was actively keeping me out."

Fire only said: "Interesting."

The Lady put her arm around Fire, she had a cool aura that went straight through Fire's scales. Even if it would look that way to onlookers, her touch had nothing romantic about it, it was more compassionate than anything else.

She looked at Fire directly and said: "Enough about my findings or others' dreams. These are difficult times for you. Tell me, Fire. How do you feel?"


	61. Chapter 53: I Sense An Opportunity

After an expectedly long conversation, Clark and the enderwoman become satisfied with information about my world. I successfully leave out how my mother left town when I was little, how my farming partner is a halfblood, and the existence of the World Organization of Crafting. I fail to avoid talking about my encounters with the mage Dan and his attempts to help me, and the prevalence of magic in my world, although I do manage leave out the details of void magic. Clark now knows much about my hometown, my world's geography and history, its technology and economy, the peoples which inhabit it, the monsters we fight, and the gods we worship, to the extent of my own knowledge.

It's a sting to part with so much information when I don't know how it will be used. However, I don't see any other choice. The more information I give now, the more likely the enderwoman will trust that I am sincere. I am going to need all the trust I can get if I am to keep more valuable information secret, like the book's ability to use me to read and control the minds of others, and the strange nightmares that the book gives me which echo of memories of a distant past...

Now, the enderwoman and I walk down a hall again. This time, we descend the stairs again and again, descending past the light-filled windows until there are no windows left. The elegant castle stone bricks darken into obsidian walls. The only light piercing through the darkness is the flickering purple light from the omnipresent lamps. Our footsteps no longer create an echo, and all else is silent. It's as if the enderwoman and I are the only creatures in this world.

We descend the last step. We are in a small room. In front of us is a large steel door.

"I bring the undocumented human and its book!" the enderwoman shouts into the door.

"Our preparations are ready. Proceed," a muffled voice replies from the other side of the door.

The enderwoman disappears in a flash of collapsing purple light. I hear a high-pitched shrieking sound reverberate through the metal as the door begins to open.

Through the opening gap, I see the enderwoman's slender arm leaned against the door. Surrounding her are two humans, both with wrinkled skin revealing old age. They are dressed to the brim with bulky armor which is colorful, flashy, and unique in appearance, nothing like the standard obsidian-colored armor I've seen before. They are mages, without a doubt.

I follow the enderwoman through the now open door, and hear it shriek closed behind me. The footsteps of the mages follow behind us.

Here, the walls are reinforced with steel, the background material a dark grey blue. The air is slightly damp, with a hint of rust. There is a quiet, deep hum whose source I cannot place. A few hallway turns later, and we enter a large room whose floor is recessed beneath the halls.

The room is mostly empty. The lower portions of the walls are covered in metal grates. In places, pipes shoot out of these grates and snake along the floor, leading to the center, where there are strange machines made of metal, wood, and glass. One of them resembles a telescope facing downward, whose tube is greatly thickened near the center and is encircled with colored indentations. The telescope-like machine is pointed toward an armchair with leather straps. Sitting in front of the armchair is a box which slightly resembles a crafting table, but has arcane symbols and geometric figures on it. Finally, there are three hourglass-shaped machines with translucent interiors, arranged in a ring surrounding the strapping chair.

Three more mages can be seen in a corner of the room muttering quietly to each other. They notice us, and begin walking toward us, as we all converge on the center of the room.

"I guess I'm supposed to sit in that chair?" I ask reluctantly.

"Precisely," the enderwoman utters. "You are now the wizards' test subject."

The coldness of the enderwoman's statement of reality sends a shiver up my spine. I walk toward the chair, as there is nothing else to do, and sit in it. One wizard walks up to me and tightens the straps on my arms, my chest, and my forehead. The other four wizards stare at me with child-like curiosity.

The enderwoman places the book in the hands of one of the wizards. "The book and Fristad are connected by some form of powerful magic. Find out what it is, uncover the full extent of their powers, and lastly, find the origin of their powers. Use any methods necessary, but keep them both alive. Are the instruments operating correctly?"

"They are; we just tested them," the wizard holding the book replies, slightly giddy.

"Good," replies the enderwoman. "I will leave you to your work."

The enderwoman departs in a final flash of purple.

Three wizards station themselves at each of the three hourglass-shaped machines. The wizard holding the book places the book upon the arcane symbol-covered table, and stands beside the wizard who tightened my straps.

The wizards each in turn confirm that they are ready, and the hourglass-shaped machines light up and begin to whir loudly. I feel as if my body is moving. The leather straps around me begin to glow. I feel a sense of awakeness, like I do just before I craft for the first time after a good night's rest.

Then, I feel a sense of foreboding. A fever washes over my body, a presence breaches my consciousness, and I begin to feel a strange longing, laced with impatient anger. The Book has returned.

"Whoa, did you feel that?" one of the wizards in front of me says, a male in gold and gem armor who I saw at the door.

"Feels like the void," the other wizard in front of me says, a female whose blue armor is partially concealed by a cloak. She is equally amused.

"Channel in on it," she orders.

Suddenly, I feel the fever and presence vanish.

"It's gone…" one of the wizards on the perimeter says with disappointment. "But… wait! I'm getting another signal. It's weak, though. Some form of earth magic."

"Focus in on it."

"I can't. The signal isn't getting any stronger."

"Try the book."

"I'm getting an ender energy reading. No void reading."

"Fascinating…"

"Shut up," says the blue-cloaked wizard. She turns her gaze towards me. "Unhide your void energy from us, please, or we will resort to using force."

"You're asking the wrong guy," I state. "The void magic comes from the Book. If you want the void magic to come out, ask the Book."

"How do we communicate with this 'book'?" the wizard in gem-studded armor asks incredulously.

"I can't say for certain, but you could try opening the Book and speaking into its pages," I say.

The gem-stud armored mage lifts the Book from the symbol-covered table and opens it. "Reveal your energies to us," he orders, "or we will be forced to resort to force."

There is a pause, and then the fever rushes into me once more.

"These slimes seek to use us... to win control over us," the Book growls seethingly in my head. "I will not allow it! Your mind is my eminent domain, my goals incorruptible! You shall tell them no more than what the enderwoman already knows. Do not be swayed by their threats." I feel a sense of calm and reassurance. "We shall rid ourselves of them in time."

I try to shake off the Book's deceptive certainty. I need to look after my own wellbeing. I need to cooperate with the wizards fully, show them that the Book is the true source of power, that I am of no use to them. Only then can I rid myself of the Book, and then get out of this place as soon as possible.

"Cooperate with ME," the Book insists. "Dispel the rebellious thoughts which make you want to rid yourself of the being that can bring you strength and greatness. Your survival depends upon me, just like every other part of you. I am telling you what you must do. You must embody patience. You must embody resistance. You must make no concessions. I have ordered you to withhold information, therefore you will do so. You have already agreed to obey me, so you have no choice in the matter. I am merely asking for your mental cooperation."

"Void readings are climbing," a wizard states with surprise.

My heart thumps. Finally, there is a witness to a piece of my suffering! The more I resist against the Book, the harder it will have to fight against me, and the higher the void magic reading will be read by the wizards. If I fight hard enough, I can prove to the wizards that the Book's power must be beyond what they know. I will have disobeyed the Book with thought-based willpower alone, and there's nothing it can do about it!

"Void readings are falling."

"Fine, then," the Book states with disappointment. "I give up. Tell them all about my powers. Let them use that knowledge against me. See if I care."

I accept the Book's challenge, and resolve to reveal the Book's ability to use me to control other minds.

"So.. what's next?" are the words which instead escape from my mouth, and no more. I feel my neck stiffen from the leather strap holding my forehead in place. I am truly in a prison.

Then, suddenly, all of my fear vanishes. I am calm. I smile faintly, waiting curiously for the wizard's response.

"You looked like you were in pain for a moment. Is everything alright?" the gem-stud armored wizard asks.

I squint in confusion for a moment, suddenly having a memory relapse of the last few minutes. I've been having a lot of those lately. Maybe it's a side-effect of the medicine that weird enderman hybrid gave me earlier.

"Oh yea," I state in realization. "I had some motion sickness. It's unpleasant, but tolerable I think. I don't think I'm going to throw up or anything like that."

"Ah yes, motion sickness is a typical side effect of these machines..." the wizard explains, "although… usually only at higher settings…"

"Hey, don't look at me like that!" I say, a bit embarrassed. "I'm a hog rider! I'm not quite that directionally incompetent!"

"I like this guy," a wizard out by a machine says in an approving tone.

"Perhaps this man's biology is different than what we normally expect from humans," another perimeter wizard muses.

"Fascinating…" the third perimeter wizard says, the same one that said that word before.

"We haven't seen the least of it yet," the wizard in the blue cloak warns. Her eyes focus on me. "Why don't you show us that spell where you transform into a skeleton?"

"Sorry, I can't do that spell right now. It only works late at night," I say to them, leaving the details out. I sense an opportunity. "However, I know of another spell that's almost exactly the same, but it also works during the day and transforms me into an enderman instead. Like the skeleton spell, it needs a crafting table, an enchantment table, and nearly an armor set's worth of diamonds. The enderman version also requires ender pearls."

Normally, I would avoid revealing information like the enderman transformation, but I sensed this as an opportunity for the Book and I to both grow stronger. I wisely avoided mentioning that the skeleton armor requires leather instead of diamonds, and that both armor sets begin to work as soon as the sun goes down. These fibs would ensure I would have access to the superior armor.

"That can be arranged," the blue-cloaked wizard responds with professional composure.

Excellent.


	62. Chapter 54: Make a Scene

I'll be honest, I was way too pleased to be sneaking around again. I used to be a thief; I missed those days dearly. There was something slightly less immoral about stealing than murder.

Sadly, the fantasy of sneaking wasn't all that tangible. I was wearing armour, after all. It scratched, scraped and clattered whenever I moved too quickly. I removed the boots and held them in hand, but there was only so much that would do.

The hallway was darkening with the evening, light slipping away down the corridor behind me, as if being dragged away to one of the cells around me. They were barred, unlike our prisons. The prisoners could see out, see each other, see the guards. I don't know if this was worse or not. I suddenly reflected on how many people I had put in prison camps and prisons, be they open-barred or not.

" _Get a hold of yourself. Not another bloody depressive episode. You're a General, and a hero,"_ said one voice. Another retorted: " _So they say."_

The cells were generally empty, and the prisoners that were there were either asleep or cowering away from me. I crept up to one cell which contained a slightly more rational-looking creature than usual. They had a black gauntlet on that seemed to crackle, though the hands were bound together - and then to a metal ball. He was bloodied and beaten, but also surprisingly young, with an impressive stubble growing across his face.

I casually leant against the bars, and rapped on them with my knuckles, whispering to him, "Hello."

He looked at me more directly now, dry and bloodshot eyes rolled up crustily to meet mine. I'd considered putting on a roguish grin, but erased any trace of that, taking on a look of utmost sobriety.

"Hello," He croaked. "What has he got in store for me now?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, caught off guard. The Entity was a torturer, that much was clear.

He laughed painfully, with both of us wincing: "Punishment? Retribution? Surely that fiasco we attempted earlier was worthy of it."

Suddenly an idea took me.

"Say, you're not from Nexus are you?"

"Is that what they call the tower?"

"Nope, the world. I'll take that as a yes. I'm in the same situation, mate - broadly speaking. I come from an entirely different world."

"Wow, we have so much in common!" He drolly retorted. "We're all from different worlds around here."

"I was going to ask how you came to be here," I laughed, granting him that. "I interrupted a mob-dealing. Now I'm negotiating a way home. What happened to _you_ , that you were so poorly treated?"

"I went through a gateway and was pretty immediately attacked," he spat.

"Really now, and you are?" I queried, before offering a hand and my name: "Kay Mandy, General in the 10th Her- General in the 10th."

"David... Slayer of Martin - reincarnated form of Carter... leader of the Liberators."

"What?"

"Long and probably only half-finished story."

We had a nice chat there about his background, trying to get him a little more comfortable with me. He wasn't amazingly lucid, tiredness and blood-loss having a bit of an effect. I imagined he'd be less willing to talk in other circumstances.

He explained how he'd been led here pretty much under the exact warning that it was a new evil to fight. He explained the attack by Glibby, how they'd been captured. The meeting with the Entity, their decision that he couldn't be trusted. Mentioned how one of them had been allegedly tortured by the Entity.

I looked up and down the hallway. No sign of anyone, but I heard footsteps.

"This escape attempt, how did it happen?" I tried, attempting to keep my voice hushed. David crawled over and held his hand to his ear. I repeated.

"Yeah, me, Destiny and three others, two maybe, do you count... I'm sorry, the blood loss isn't doing my head any good. It was me, Destiny, Tyron, his little sword-friend and… I'm…"

"Save your strength, David. You're a good man." I offered. "I'll be back." I intended to find a guard. The man needed a doctor. I couldn't leave him in that state.

I was about to call for a guard, and was stood out in the middle of the corridor. I clattered my boots together for good measure.

"Astro, that's the one." David yawned, oblivious to what was happening. "Astro… wizard."

My armour was suddenly leaden.

"What did you say?" I was breathless.

I rushed down to him, and whispered: " _Punch the barriers and make a scene!"_

Lucidity reentered his eyes and he dutifully started to yell obscenities and weakly slam his gauntlet into the barrier.

Two guards came around the corner, both human mercifully. However, following shortly after was The Dog, monocle shining as ever.

I made sure to fall back in an unnerved and outraged manner. I unfurled proudly, giving David the pure enmity I'd seen on many an aristocrat's face. He winked wryly and I fought the urge to grin. Yet, I maintained my facade. I looked to The Dog.

"These are some degenerates you have in here," I grumbled. "Here I am, hoping he gets a doctor, and he tries to take a swing at me!"

"Yes," The Dog sauntered over and stood beside me laxly, staring pensively at David, who had retreated into the corner of his cell with an animalistic distrust, halfway growling, feet arched to pounce. His gauntlet weighed his right arm down, so it sat between his legs - he was like some sort of depraved ape - I had to wonder where the performance began and where David ended.

"You shouldn't be here," The Dog scolded lightly.

"Indeed. And I'm sure you shouldn't be treating him like this," I tried to make the warning as diplomatic as I could. "I mean, it's just impractical. If you want him dead, kill him. If you want him alive, this is the wrong way to go about it. Then again - apparently he tried to lead an insurrection with a few others. He might well deserve it."

"He does indeed. We showed them hospitality, despite initial misgivings. Gave them a special cell several floors up. That's ruined now. They attempt to escape, vandalise our property and kill our employees," I made sure to note the gently disgusted tone and the order of that list.

If they didn't like escapees, they had something worth hiding.

"I take it from your tone you're not going to arrest me," I laughed. I glanced at the Dog for the first time. He was just staring at David with vague satisfaction, the purple light glinting off his monocle.

"No. They confer upon you the liberty of the Tower. You only needed to ask to be permitted down here," He dismissed. I got the distinct sense that he was making it up on the spot and trying to make the best of a bad situation. "Don't worry about his well-being. This is a temporary arrangement. A doctor will be around to see them soon."

I sensed that this was likely much more true, and acquiesced.

"How many rebels were there?" I inquired.

"Four, five if you count a sentient sword."

"I suppose I'm just supposed to accept that?"

"Yes," The Dog smirked and I laughed in a good-natured manner. If I hadn't been so deeply, totally distrustful of this group, I would have viewed him as an incentive to enlist.

"It looks like there was quite a fight. How dangerous were they? What sort of fighters were we talking about?"

"Large furball with aforementioned sentient sword, two wizards and the invalid who just tried to scare you. Nothing special about him, just has some sort of magical explosive strapped to his arm that we can't take off him. We separated him due to the potential for damage to property. The furball too. The two wizards are together though."

"Interesting. Might I see these others?"

And so he obliged me, very politely talking about the process of setting up the prison, and about interesting creatures they'd encountered. They were a motley lot - lots of creatures I could barely describe. But then, at last I came around the corner, and there it was - the big green furry thing.

It was huge, seven foot tall at least. No talons or claws, but its arms were strong enough to be intimidating just for the sheer muscle. Its eyes were a deep blue, and its back seemed to glow onto the wall with the same vigour. It was pacing around the room, with a sword in a sealed scabbard at his side. He was chained to the wall by the leg, with another chain linked to a large metal weight for good measure.

I eyed him up and down, and then glanced across the hall; something large and distracting was there - thank goodness! I asked the dog to explain the large eight-legged creature on the other side, and he promptly began monologuing, not paying me any heed as he proudly did so. I turned to the green monster, muttering: " _I know Astro."_

His ears perked up immediately, and I heard a shrill voice piping into my head. Thank goodness, it was telepathic.

" _Astro, you know, how?"_ Poor grammatical structure - low intelligence. It took offense at this, so I decided to slip those sorts of thoughts deeper, as trained, and take a more positive outlook in the open channels. I thought back to Zine, and tried to picture Astro and I's friendship as best I could - after a false start involving Astro picking me up and beating the shit out of me in a field I think I conveyed our friendship pretty well. We were close - I would die for that man.

" _You seem not confused by the telepathy thing."_

I told it that I was very used to this sort of thing by now. I thought I'd best repress memories of Herobrine for the time - he seemed to be controversial outside our world. I asked it if it could communicate with Astro.

" _Yes. Are you going around to him?"_

I told it that yes, I was coming. I also asked it to seek out a weird little hooded kid called Warnado if it could - he'd help. I instructed it to tell Warnado to get the keys and then to direct him to myself and Astro.

All this time I was nodding politely to the Dog's ramblings, and it seemed very pleased indeed. Then, it was at last done, I threw a wink, and it was time to meet an old friend.


	63. Chapter 55: He Says He Knows You

" _He says he knows you."_

As startled as I was by the fact that _anyone_ in this wretched place would know of me, I felt a surge of pride to know that news of my exploits, apparently in a positive light, had travelled far. I asked Kir for a physical description of the man.

Destiny snored slightly beside me.

" _Auburn hair, striking emerald green eyes-"_

My own thoughts cut Kir off and he fell silent, evidently sensing my feeling of dread. The man Kir was describing had been dead for a long time now.

I would know. I lived through the funeral, and punished some of the bastards responsible. Confusion turned to anger as I questioned everything. Surely this was just a trick they were playing on me, and I'd break out of the spell soon. There was no way for this to have been possible.

Struggling to imagine just how gaunt my face appeared at that moment, I turned to face the outside of my cell. Through the wrought steel bars, the very man Kir had described turned his head my way, his boots clattering together in one hand, and peered in.

Kay Mandy, the very same man that I had once pummeled to near death by the river all those years ago. My fondly remembered partner in endless shenanigans, and almost undoubtedly dead and buried.

So, what the hell was he doing here?

Upon closer inspection of this...ghost of the past, I only became more confused by what I was seeing. He lacked the vague signs of age that the Kay I had known had garnered over the years, and still had that slight sparkle in his eyes - and the other eye for that matter. Wait…

" _Astro, are you listening?"_ chirped Kir. Of all the times for my monologue to have been interrupted, this was by far the worst.

" _He wants to talk to you."_

The ghost previously mentioned leant down to the bars as was characteristic and looked through. He stared directly at me with a look of familiarity and worrying ambition. He was about to do something that was just ludicrously stupid; I knew it.

"Ugly bastard isn't he?" Kay immediately laughed. "What even is this thing? A man?"

A dog-like creature next to him seemed not quite to know how to respond.

"I'd think so," it said with forced charisma. "It certainly looks like it to me."

"Only to an untrained eye," He said in a knowing tone. "In my world, some creatures can disguise themselves as humans. Generally Farland escapees - demons and the like. You can usually tell by the lines around their eyes. There's a purple quality to the outlines of their eyes. Come on, I'll show you. It's pretty dim, bring a lantern."

The dog's interest seemed piqued by this, and grabbed a purple crystal from one of the lamp stands. He leant down. Kay handed his boots to a guard quite rudely, and leant down with him.

"You can see it." A hand drifted away from the bars and downwards. Another drifted up and towards the dog's shoulder. The light lit up my face, casting a glare into my eyes. "See where the tear duct is. That faint glimmer. Right there."

That was when Kay slammed its head into the bars, causing it to go limp. The lamp shattered on the floor and a sword I hadn't seen in years flashed out. Amicus was gone, and Apotyre had returned - or perhaps it hadn't left yet.

The two guards were deeply shocked and didn't seem to know what to do. Kay kicked one, sending him sprawling into another lantern, toppling and shattering it. I felt myself growing stronger. I reached out to the other in my mind, and he froze. Then Kay's sword severed his head from his body. He walked slowly up to the other one so as to finish the job there too.

Destiny was awake and on her feet, seeming to be ready to cheer for the man's death, but I rose and placed a hand across her mouth, shooting a warning look.

" _What's happened?"_ Kir demanded enthusiastically.

As Kay ended the crawling man, I projected the stream of events over to Kir as best I could. I felt that he was satisfied.

He came to the door, and sat down beside us, making sure to rub blood all over his flank, making it look as if he had been wounded. He leant against the bars for good measure.

Destiny conjured a shard of ice and scrambled over to press it to the side of his neck.

"Thank you," He chuckled. "A perfect image."

He pushed the Dog aside. It was bleeding badly from its forehead. Kay seemed to be vaguely regretful of this, but he didn't say anything.

"Hello Astro, been a few days. Admittedly, I expected you'd look a little better. Then again, customs feels like it lasts years," he chuckled encouragingly. "I guess it's only naturally that you look it."

"Yeah, well, you wouldn't believe what kind of customs I've been through." Not to mention that I'd seen you die.

"Yeah, I suppose it's very - How the living shit are you here?" The swerve in tone was massive - he was genuinely startled. Unfortunately for him, I felt that I deserved that right far more.

"I could say the same about you. I'm far too tired to deliver you my heroic origin story, so we'll have to settle for yours."

My sarcasm had clearly never left me despite the gloomy outlook.

"I did a stupid thing and now I'm here. Is that a variation from the norm? No. And now we wait for Warnado with those keys."

He responded without missing a beat. Having even less understanding of what was going on than before, I settled for some idle conversation as we waited. Him startled, and I bemused.


	64. Chapter 56: The Black Armour

This strange arcane room has become much more lively. Workers swarm about with shelves and stacks of books, while additional wizards expand the ring of machines with more hourglass-shaped structures. At the end of the commotion, I am unstrapped from the chair and standing within an enclosed space. To my right and to my left are well-stocked bookshelves, and wizards armed with swords and staves guard my front and back. Directly in front of me is a crafting table and an enchantment table, with the strange thickened telescope aimed at the tables. The glowing white letters that condense out of the bookshelves and into the floating book are not from any alphabet that I know. Who knows what countless writers from other worlds wrote them?

The Book fills my body with the energy of the void, and its overflowing excitement makes me feel giddy. In a pile on the floor are the diamonds and ender pearls that we requested. I gather some into my arms, appreciate for a moment the vast wealth that these materials represent, and lay the diamonds and ender pearls upon the crafting table.

I begin my work, rearranging the materials, adding and removing as I adjust the quantities. I expect a long struggle of crafting ahead, but then an idea clicks in my mind. I press the two ender pearls slightly closer together, and then the diamonds begin to stretch into each other, defying their physical hardness. The ender pearls fuse into the diamond shell as if it were a liquid, causing the shell to tint into a dark teal. Then, as the diamond shell begins to converge upon a final helmet shape, it quickly darkens into an obsidian black.

I grasp the formed black diamond helmet, my hands nearly going limp from the numbing crafting energy, and turn the helmet around expectantly. At first, I am suddenly surprised by its light weight. Then, I see the helmet's front, its glowing runes, its flattened, angular cheeks. It is just like the head of an enderman!

...an enderman from my own world, no less!

The rest of the enderman armor set proceeds similarly, with ender pearls and diamonds left to spare. I feel the need to shake my arms out to get rid of the numbing crafting energy, but the commands to my arms are to no avail. Either the Book is very eager to see this armor finished, or this armor is truly in a league in its own. I faintly recollect the curse-like nature of the previous skeleton armor, and hope to Notch that this armor does not have similar side effects.

The Book presses me harder, purging my fear, egging me to continue. I feel as if the first piece of armor is hovering over to the enchantment table with my hands attached to it. The fever of the void grows even stronger, and I begin to feel pain.

Then, another idea clicks in my head. In my mind's eye, I see my own body as if viewing it from above. My body, filled with energy, shines like a star, piercing through a dark and stormy sky. Just next to my star is a fainter star, the light of the enchantment table. Surrounding my body's star are even brighter stars, the stars of the wizards, and beyond those, even brighter still, is a shining wall lined with hourglasses, and beyond that… pure darkness.

It is a sight, which I cannot really classify as sight. The only word I can use to describe it… is magic.

As more glowing letters fuse into the enchantment book beneath the armor, the pages of the enchantment book flip faster. I feel my eyes pulled to the words on the pages… every single word flashing in my mind like an old memory suddenly resurfacing. The words swarm restlessly inside of my head, begging for sentences to make them real. I open my mouth as the words begin to push against the tip of my tongue, and…

… my voice booms with words of power, each shockwave brightening the faintly glowing corona of magic which surrounds the armor in my hands. Then, the train of words suddenly ends, as if I have suddenly forgotten something. I quantify the strength of the magic within the armor, and the Book is satisfied.

I set the enchanted armor down and begin anew with another piece, and each time my voice is booming with energy. Then, with the new armor complete, I take off my diamond armor. My legs and back are relieved of the diamond armor's strain, and I begin to feel the cool and damp underground air on my skin.

Then, I begin to put on the enderman armor piece by piece. First, I slide on the leggings. The intense tingling numbness seeps into my legs and erases all feeling in them. My arms and neck become weak, and the world around me becomes distant, dark, and quiet. With difficulty I pull my paralyzed legs apart with my arms to maintain my balance. Then, I grip the black chestplate and slide it over my head. The darkness becomes pervasive, and my body feels detached from existence like a floating ghost. The numbness shoots up my arms, making them so heavy that their weight is almost unbearable. It is only with great difficulty that I reach for the helmet's silhouette…

...but even the armor I wear now is too much to bear. Already, I feel my thoughts quieting. The only sensation keeping my consciousness from slipping away is an intensifying feeling of anger. I feel my hands grip the cool helmet shell as the inner surface slides against my cheeks. Just barely as the top of my head touches the helmet, my anger turns to panic as I realize my mistake, and I try in vain to pull the helmet off.

Then, I feel the last of my strength drain from my arms, and my panic dissipates. The world tilts, colors circle and swarm about the edges of my vision, and then… there is nothing.

In the brief moment between awareness and unconsciousness, I barely hear the Book impatiently utter, "do everything myself," and the cold, hard ender material slides against my feet.


	65. Chapter 57: Warnado Gets the Damned Keys

Warnado had always been taught by his father to expect the unexpected. Seeing as his father was half-demon, Warnado never really found such a teaching to be difficult to follow.

However, Warnado was genuinely surprised to find Bruce Banner locked in one of the Entity's cells.

The hulking beast was green, and covered in fur. Its eyes were glowing blue, and it was armed, carrying a sword hidden within a scabbard. This surprised Warnado; the beast's arms were rippling with muscle. Deciding to use a sword seemed like a bit of a downgrade.

The beast had its back turned, staring at the wall. Unsure whether it was capable of speech, Warnado decided to reach out with his mind. _"Hello."_

The beast shuffled around, turning to face the half-demon. _"Are you Warnado… 125?"_

Warnado was immediately on his guard. How did this strange creature know his name?

 _"_ _Depends. Who wants to know?"_

 _"_ _Tyron of Minecraftia. Kay told me to tell you to get the keys."_

Warnado narrowed his eyes suspiciously. _"What, is he planning a jailbreak or something?"_

The beast, or Tyron, as it had called itself, shrugged. It seemed to ponder its words carefully. _"You are suspicious of me. But, there are others. Kay knows one of them, Astro. He said to get the keys and go to him."_

 _"_ _We'll see about that."_ Warnado snapped his fingers, and was suddenly holding a set of keys. _"Which way did Kay go?"_

Tyron pointed a large finger towards the left, down the hallway. His directions turned out to be unnecessary, however, as a large bang was heard, followed by the sounds of a scuffle. Warnado rushed down the hallway towards the noise, turning a couple of times, and soon found the bodies of two guards and The Dog, along with Kay and two prisoners.

"-now we wait for Warnado with those keys."

Warnado's face took on a look of mischief beyond the mental capacity of many mortals, and he skulked off into the shadows. He was going to stealth these guys so hard, take those keys and free these weird people he knew nothing about, risking his own position and means of getting home- wait, what was he doing? This was very stupid.

But wait, he didn't want to get home - not yet. He was going to try and learn a few things from Kay's world, hopefully sit out some of the worst and come back when he was strong enough to make a real difference. Amanda too… His feet stopped moving. He needed to find her soon.

Hang on, if they didn't find a way out during the breakout, Kay's world might not be an option either. They could be imprisoned like all these guys. And, what about these people he was freeing? Apparently _one_ of them was from Kay's world. But what about the rest? Suppose they found themselves in a situation where they could only travel once or something? Did they go by a measure of whoever had the most need? Or did they go by the measure of the most people wanting to go to one world? Would they have time to discuss such matters?

And what if these people were evil? Kay was associated with Him after all. What if they weren't as virtuous as they suggested… Then again, weird and smug as he was, Kay certainly was trying to be nice. And those Brine people had certainly been messed around by the Entity. He didn't know what was up with that Fristad guy, but he felt very sorry for him. Notch knows what was with that Fire guy; he hadn't done anything wrong, but there was something too cold and distant about him to truly trust. Admire perhaps, but he was like a statue, some kind of conception of a person.

" _And who knows who these guys in cages are?"_ He thought.

He felt himself beginning to panic, but then he sighed. He felt determination filling him. The Entity was holding these people against their will, and people who were in such weirdly poor conditions generally didn't deserve it, in Warnado's experience. Besides, this Entity was weird, creepy and clearly up to some shady stuff. It would also be hilarious to see or even conceive of the frustration that Bul guy would feel as a result of this. This would be a gift to the world. Even if he couldn't see it, there would be some fellow connoisseur of uptight rage that might benefit from it. Truly, his was a noble cause.

He rushed around as stealthily as he could. Conjuring a pair of his own keys was nice and all, but it would be better if he could have keys that not only looked like keys but also unlocked the locked locks he needed to unlock. After all, these were no ordinary mechanical locks Warnado was dealing with; how else could these cages trap a magicking wizard like Astro or a fur-covered beast with superhuman strength like Tyron? Finally, like twenty minutes later he found a promising-looking hallway with a group of human guards sitting around casually like they were on break or something. Warnado put his fingers to his forehead and began to think really hard.

Clearly at least one of the guards had got to have some keys, but which one? Somehow he had to figure out what was in those pockets, but he couldn't tell from so far away. And he didn't want to alert the guards by getting too close; he could probably magick his way out of the problem, but that just seemed unsportsmanlike.

So, he had to find a way to pull out whatever was in the guard's pockets from a distance. He could just magick the objects out of their pockets and into his hands, but that would create dimensional vacuums in the guard's pockets, and those sorts of holes in pockets were really frickin' permanent and tended to be bad for one's health. No, this would not do; Warnado would only employ the most subtle of tactics.

Warnado grinned dramatically and conjured into existence the freshest jar of raspberry jam he could muster. He struggled for several minutes to get the darn thing open, finally resorting to heating the lid with flames to unscrew the cap. He then plunged his hand into the jam and scooped up a large blob of the viscous, sugary substance.

Warnado focused his attention on the pocket of one of the guards. With a magical flourish, he caused some of the jam in his hand to be replaced by the crumpled paper that happened to be in the guards pocket. Warnado frowned; this was not what he was looking for, so he extracted the paper from the jam and tried again. A pen. A bunch of coins. Nail clippings? Eww…

One by one Warnado replaced each of the mystery contents of the guards' pockets with jam. To his disappointment, none of them contained the keys to the prison cells.

Then, the guards started to notice what had been done to them. One of them probed a pocket with his hand, his face clenching in utter disgust.

"Why are my pockets filled with jam? Clementine, did _you_ do this?"

"No, of course not! My pockets are soiled too. What is this nonsense?"

"Who did this? Who pulled this stupid prank? Speak up now!"

"WHOEVER COMMITTED THIS CULINARY ATROCITY IS GOING TO PAY!"

One by one, the guards stormed out of the hall. Warnado sighed, cleaned the raspberry jam from his hand with flames, closed the jar, and magicked it out of existence. He surveyed the hall, and then his face lit up with an, "oh Notch, why didn't I think of that?" look.

Just on the wall, on a hook attached to a wooden board, was a ring of keys.

Warnado walked up to the wall and lifted the keys from the hook.


	66. Chapter 58: Want to Know How I Got Here?

"So, I suppose I'd better elaborate slightly further," I added in, shaking my head a little. This was the most awkward conversation I'd had in several years, even accounting for the makeshift knife pressed to my jugular. Neither of us knew what was going on, why the other was there, and both of us were deeply suspicious. As such, it was a very uncomfortable conversation despite my best and most charming efforts.

"Do you want to know how I got here?" I shrugged.

I kept staring at the strange, dirty, bloodied girl perfecting my ruse. That was one crazy girl, and I knew my fair share of crazies at the time. You found them constantly in the prison camps. You saw them, they looked very frail and you felt sorry for them, but in truth they were looking for a knife to put in your eye. Still, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for this one. There was a protectiveness, a sense that Astro was perhaps breaking some sort of trust between them in speaking to me.

"We've got time to kill and this is only the second strange thing to happen to me today," Astro wearily acquiesced.

"Only the second?" I smirked. "I've got to step up my game. There's evidently more competition here in the aggressively quirky market than I anticipated."

"You'd be surprised, Kay. I'm all ears."

"Well," I began in my most proud tone. "Aaron is the one who landed me in such a poor situation. As is expected. You know how he is. So reckless." I turned my head in dismissal of the man as Astro gave an audible sigh. "But yes, he pointed out to me a group near our camp. I investigated. I see a strange portal, and from here, things get strange! Glibby the Ape is there - you know the one Brit's always banging on about? The serial killer? Looks like a monkey?"

I looked to him for certainty that this was my Astro. He nodded and gave an attentive stare; clearly nothing had changed. I continued.

"Yeah, he was there. That's not the strange part. He's there with one of his mysterious employers, and then, out of the portal emerges this Entity creature. Big, bronze suit. Runs this tower apparently - Bul's boss. What am I talking about? It sounds like you've met him. You've certainly killed a lot of his people according to this old Dog." I made sure to add a playfully accusatory tone.

"When they chase you in hordes with a murderous intent, there's not much else you can do, Kay."

"I can't argue with that. Besides, I've probably killed as many," I laughed. "But yeah, they break out a flipping Eye." I paused for effect. "The two parties turn on each other, the Entity kills the mob boss off, I steal the eye and escape through the portal. They destroy it after me. Now I'm here."

"So why is it that I'm behind bars, yet you're being given the Full Monty?"

"Professional secret." I paused. "That I'm about to throw into the open. I met a couple of guys, one of whom's a giant, immortal lizard man who murders people as a game. Understandably, I was able to worm my way into a better negotiating position. I didn't kill anyone stealing the Eye - I killed a few later but I don't think they know that yet. I just promised to give it back in return for a trip home. Then we were haggling. Now I'm here."

Astro flinched, giving a 'why-didn't-I-think-of-that' sort of look.

"Commendable, but what's your plan from here?"

"Well, I intend to escape, with you and your friends. And mine. We'll find our way home on the way out. Most important part is safety though. Say, you haven't seen a strange guy who seems to teleport everywhere? Calls himself Steve? Not to be confused with another guy called Steve. Now that I think of it we should probably try roping him into this too..." I scratched my chin.

"Hmm… there was an apparition similar to that description that seemed to fall to his death in front of us. I couldn't fathom why he was there."

"That was essentially my experience. By the way, while we're talking about the colourful characters we've met, who's she." I pointed rudely to Destiny. "She hasn't said a word and she's creeping me out."

"That's Destiny. She's feisty and won't go anywhere without David. Beyond that, we don't know too much about her."

"Oh, David, I know him. Nice guy."

That got to her.

"Is he okay?" She was terrified. By Notch I felt sorry for her.

"Yes." I nodded. A solid ten seconds of silence. "So, another colourful character. I found a kid called Warnado. Can we keep him?"

"We have discussed pets in the past, Kay. If you can safeguard his life, I'm sure we can accommodate him. And if not, at least he'll be more useful than Cossack."

I laughed, hard.

"Oh come on, Astro, he can't be worse than that sad sack of shit, Bokane."

Astro muttered something about "being careful who you trust" that I couldn't fully make out.

"Bokane certainly is a sack of shit," Astro affirmed more audibly. I felt a chill down my spine.

"Mods, your opinion changed quickly. Last time I saw you I thought there was a wedding to arrange!"

"What can I say?" Astro smiled wistfully but knowingly. "People are fickle."

"Oh! Another thing; Warnado's a wizard-type like you. You can train him to do magic things, can't you?"

Astro rolled his eyes.

"One thing at a time Kay. His magic might be weakly derived."

"I wouldn't say that to his face," I heard some uneven, pattering footsteps coming down the hallway. "Here's hoping this is him."

I fell against the bars, and began to groan in a low tone, only daring to squint up in the direction of the footsteps.

"Hello gentlemen." Warnado rattled the keys, a broad grin across his face. "Is it emancipation time already?"


End file.
